SW EOTE

Two weeks of travelling without making a penny, but at last we arrived in the wheel! Never been here before, but it sure looks like a cosmopolitan place: the corridors are full of all kinds of life, especially those figures whose interactions with the empire are somewhat soured. Apparently, the space station has a special status, keeping the Empire out of its affairs.

Pash and our Wookie friend seemed eager to explore the station, so, while they are at it, we gave them some money for a couple of comlinks. The other sentient team members, (that is Lainaki, Kopec and myself – I do not count droids) decided to start our visit by dropping by the IsoTech director Reom. After we arrived at the companies quarters and presented ourselves to the front desk droid, all doors locked down, while he was checking our identities. Security at the wheel isn't that great apparently… Also, Lainaki is still holding on to the 'Laila Spacerunner' identity (scared of her obsessed ex, probably rightfully). The droid found no incriminating records and soon enough, the doors were unlocked and one of us could go talk with the company boss. Since Lainaki is a strong negotiator, we decided to let her do the talking with Reom, while Kopec and I remained in the lobby, observing the day-to-day events of a tech company. A mechanic complained about low wages and resigned, but not too much happened.

After a while, Lainaki came back and it turned out that she made an excellent deal! When we manage to locate the ship, we get 50% of all profits, full coverage of all expenses and a 10k credit reward, possibly more if the ship contains some interesting technologies! On top of that, we got a 10% prepayment. Finally: Ik Na'Hosa, undisputed leader of a succesfull company! The only catch of the deal is that Lainaki told Reom that we had some excellent mechanical skills in our team.

Reom also had a lot of useful information on the ship. Recently, he received a long lost hyperspace message pod, sent out by the captain of the Sa Naleaor before it disappeared. The ships captain had ties to IsoTech and Reoms father (which is unsurprising, since the ship seems to carry top-notch CIS cybernetic technology). IT3PO, a protocol droid of Reoms father remembers the face of the captain of the Sa Naleor and will join our team. The droid will be delivered within 7 hours, with a small team of guards (security really sucks at the Wheel). The pod was launched from a position in the proximity of the planet Cholganna, so probably the ship has landed or crashed on that planet.

Thinking about the promised mechanical skills, we decided that our team needed to look for a technician. We asked the IsoTech front desk about the mechanic that just left. Apparently, her name is Miran Craterlast, a mechanic with an average skill level. We decided go take to look for her in the closest bar (a technique that is often effective when looking for average mechanics) and of course she was sitting right there. It turned out that she was just tired of her old job and was looking for something more adventurous (luckily, she didn't ask to set a specific paywage). We told her that we were looking for a treasure ship and she quickly agreed to join our team.

There was an information kiosk not far from the spot where we were talking, so we decided to google our desiny. Initially, we didn't find too much, but Miran decided to demonstrate her computer skills: she sliced the system and we got a lengthy description of the Cholganna environment. We found a detailed description of the different continents. The most important takeways were that the planet is mostly covered by a dense forest, which holds a variety of predators that are called Nexu. In the past, these Nexu were targets of big game hunters, but recently, the number of expeditions to Cholganna has decreased. We were browsing through this information, when suddenly an alarm went off. The slicing had triggered an alarm and the computer immediately shut down. We immediately dispersed into the crowd, but we may have attracted some unwanted eyes…

Some minutes later, the team gathered in the bar again. We decided that we needed more information on navigating to Colganna. The barman seemed like a guy who meets a lot of people, so we asked him whether he knew some people who went bountyhunting on that planet. He did remember one name: Jo Kol, a pilot who formerly navigated in the star system, but now worked as a bookee in a gambling den.

While this (quite noisy) conversation was going on, we noticed a Corellian, sitting not too far from the bar. Several visitors came to his table, talked for a while and left, after handing him some money. We assumed that he was some sort of information broker and decided to go talk to him. For a price of 10 credits per question, he agreed to share his information. He told us that he knew a big game hunter, who had possibly been there, and guess who: none other than good old Trex. He is in the Wheel too, apparently. He also knew that fewer and fewer big game hunters have been travelling to Cholgana. It became increasingly dangerous, but the broker doesn't seem to know the exact reason. He did talk vaguely about some group that doesn't want people to come by, so it seems thay our adversaries may include more than just these Nexu monsters… The guy was very interested in our business on Cholganna. We told him that we were bounty hunting there, and the guy payed us a couple of credits for the lie as well!

After this talk, we decided to go look for the pilot Jo Kol in the High Stakes & Hyperspace gambling club. We did see him walk around, but he was focused on his job and not interested in talking. If only we could talk to the guy during his off time. We did ask to a lady that looked like a regular customer where he might go when he's not working, but her answer was not very informative (although it was funny). Other visitors had some history about our employer: apparently, IsoTech was founded during the clone wars. Officially, it operates as a legitimate company (although there are some non-official activities as well).

Apart from winning money through a die game (3 times in a row!), it didn't look like there was much more to be gained in the casino, so we decided to leave and start preparing for the Cholganna environment. Nols, the owner of the Fartlander's outfitting and sypply shop sold us all kinds of useful survival gear: tents, ropes, ration packs, backpacks and more. We told him that we went for a Nexu hunt and, as it happend, he knew a lot about these creatures. He tolk us that they typically have a head-to-tail length of about 4.5 meters and a height of 1 meter. Most varieties have red eyes with infrared vision and are armed with a set of sharp teeth, claws and a dangerous tail. With the infrared vision in mind, we decided to invest some money in thermal cloaks as well.

To prepare for our trip to Cholganna, we decided to go to a discount textile shop. If I recall correctly it was called something like “Ze’em aan”. As the name suggests, the patron was a Twi’lek lady. We bought some cheap thermal cloaks, also to be used as tents if necessary, and a few space suits. Salvaging the Sa Nalaor. Our new recruit, Miran, tried to ask about Cholganna. I appreciate her initiative, but the Twi’lek did not provide us with any new information.
We went back to the Blasted Asteroid, and lo and behold, Jo’kol is taking his break right here and now. As expected he knows how to get to Cholganna and traverse the Nebula through which it is currently passing through. He gave me some helpful tips. He then, just as many others before him, warns us that even big game hunters don’t go there anymore because of the dangerous wildlife.
After this insightful talk with the obviously skilled pilot, we dropped by in a starship parts store: Hall’s part store. Hall turns out to be an elderly man with cybernetic hearing and eyes. After waiting in line for a while (he seems to enjoy listening to whatever his customers have to say) Miran and I got to talk to him. Nahosa told me we didn’t have any money left, especially not for spaceship parts like a better sensor array, nevertheless we tell Hall we are interested in such an array which is able to penetrate a nebula and say something offhand about the salvaging business. He gets the idea and starts talking about the “Star fog”, that’s how he calls the nebula of the Cholganna system. Recalling many other adventurers chasing this wild dream, he decides to tell us a tale in private. After closing the shop he begins.
He rambled for a while about the clone wars and stuff like that. He said something about other sightings of the ship at Troyka, Tusne and Drongar (???). Eventually, the old guy gets to the point, he has maps of various CIS space ships. We bought it at a quite steep price of 500 credits, hopefully they are worth it.
At night we decided to go out for dinner. We found an Alderanian establishment: Tasia’s Tap Café. A quaint little restaurant. Inside we ran into quite a few Alderanian refugees and Brun Brux, the Alderanian proprietor. We ordered a typical Alderanian meal, not many places where you can still get this stuff. After I left a message on his wall for the Victims of this genocide, we left for the Lucky Guess.
When arriving we got contacted by Reom’s sister Sheera. She told us their father’s droid is on its way, escorted by security personnel. She also mentions that Reom’s office was raided by Rodians. Kopec, Lawric and Miran decided to go and meet the droid on the road.
Not much later Nahosa and I hear blaster shots coming from the direction the droid would be coming from. We both decide to run their way. Miran and Kopec later told me they found five Rhodians tossing unconscious humans and a disabled protocol droid around. They take off with the protocol droid on a cargo loader. Miran jumped on another loader and chased them. The Rhodians crashed into an R2 droid and Miran opened fire. One by one we joined the fire fight. Miran gets hit badly and ran into the Rhodians blindly slashing around with her sword.
After a while the entire sector is quarantined, giant blast doors close on all sides and the authorities appear. We surrender peacefully and they arrest us all, including the Rhodians.

Suddenly Kopec finds himself in that arena again, face to face with Trex. This time he tries to get away; he starts running and tries to get up the walls of the pit. But the stones offer little grip and before he knows it he feels the pain of razor sharp claws opening the flesh on his back. The crowd laughs, Teemo laughs, Trex laughs…. And then he hears crying, a voice he remembers. Amatseri.

He turns around and suddenly the arena is gone, and all he sees is her tiny broken body kneeling besides her slayed husband. Then Geoff turns to him and says:"You did this to me". The image fades and suddenly he finds himself walking through the streets of his old village. Cold. Dark. Empty and abandoned. The only person standing in the middle of the road is Sila'aran, covered in blood, he turns around and looks at Kopec:"Only strength can protect the ones you love Kopec'aran. You should have listened."

At that point he feels a cruching pain in his right knee, as he looks up he sees Tweek with a maniacal grin on his face: "Gooodzzz luk ever warking on thzzat again". Filled with hatred and rage Kopec charges at him.

He wakes up to the sound of every piece of equipment on the trays around him stuttering, and falls off the improvised field that 41-VEX had prepared for him in a secluded space of the cargo room. Knifes, injectors, bandages and stims are spread around on the floor as he looks around for his walking stick. "What in gods name is happening to me?" he mutters…

In which Zachary bows out

Today was a shit day. A real fuckstorm of a day. Oh, and I quit. Had enough, it was always out of the frying pan and into the fire, time and time again. So I'm officialy unemployed again, on the run from Teemo and going who knows where.

But you don't care about that, right, you're just here to hear the stories, to watch misery unfold. Hah, strap yourselves in, have I got the tale for you. I even managed to get the parts I wasn't involved in. Who knew that Nahossa's comm-link was turned on all the time…

So, starting where I left off. With the big ship hanging over us. Long story short, we panick jumped. And after that, tired of the commotion, I just found a place to sleep. Between two crates in the hold, cozy.

And then I wake up, and we're on Mos Shuuta, alone in the ship, commlink blaring in my ear. Shit, shouldn't have binged on that Blue Milk I found stashed away between the crates. I tuned into the chatter.

Well, fuck, apparently Kopec had gotten himself captured by Trex. And Lainaki and Nahossa ran. Can't blame them. They also split in completly different directions and still managed to end up together. Ah well.

So, we decide to meet up at one of my old haunts, and start to discuss a possible rescue plan. Well, to be honest, we discuss whether we even want to rescue him first. All in favour, reluctantly, the bastard is damn useful sometimes, for all the trouble he brings. And he did safe my life. Once. What's the stand there? 1-4, 1-5? Who cares anyway, I was getting paid for that. Well, at least I was promised pay for that. Until the Wookie pelts ofc >.>

So, the plan is relatively simple, which I like, but relies on bluffing our way past Teemo's guards, which I don't like. Lainaki buys a couple of disguises, and transforms herself into Mistress Spacerunner, a purveyor of Gladatorial meat. Nahossa dresses up as a manservant and yours truly takes on the alter-ego I had taught left behind:

"The Hand That Smashes"

groans Why did I ever come up with that >.<

Kopecerlude

So, while we were playing dress-up in the sreets of Mos Shuuta, Kopec was thrown into Teemo's gladatorial cells. There, he met several intersting personae who I'm sure all have an interesting backstory. But I only heard about the wookie. And the smuggler Pash, but he wasn't there yet.

Kopec gets all buddy-buddy with the wookie, before some guards come in and drag him out. Into the arena. There, het met our old buddy Teemo. And Trex. Mostly Trex.

Well, mostly Trex's claws.

/Kopercerlude

Suprisingly enough, our disguises were good enough to get us past the two main doors and into the reception area. A sullen and bored lady at the counter listened to our introduction and told us to wait. In order to not blow our cover, as it seemed to work, we decided not to violently escalate.

Kopecerlude

Kopec wakes up, bruised and hurt in his cell. Someone has treated his wounds

/Kopecerlude

In the room with us, there was a nervous wreck of a man. Nahossa went to talk with him, and figured out he was a smuggler named Pash, who lost some of the Hutt's cargo. He's been waiting for over hours now.
A Rodian doctor entered throught the front gate.
Fuck, that was Teel, dressed all fancy for doing business.
I do some quick hand-singaling in the old battle cant, and he seemed surprised. And intrigued.
Probably should not have done that, we didn't exactly part on friendly terms.
Lainaki, for some reason, decided to talk to him. He managed to convince her to let me remove my helmet, revealing my identity

The old codger merely smirked, and spouted some lines about how I'm going to get what's coming for me. Ah well, twas worth a try.

And then the receptionist called in Pash, leaving us to our waiting again.

Kopecerlude

Kopec was dragged into the arena again. Pleading for his life and use with Teemo granted little reprieve, as the Kubaz jumped into the circle of sand, to break his barely mended bones and flay his freshly bandaged skin. Unconscious again, he was dragged back towards the cells.

/Kopecerlude

During the long lull of boredom, we hatched a rough plan to knock out the receptionist, and blitz through towards the cells, scooping up data along the way, based on our prior knowledge of Teemo's palace. However, fate intervened, and just as we we're about to enact this foolish display of bravery, it opened the doors to even more idiotic opportunities: the receptionist called for us to enter. Teemo was ready to receive us.

And so we walked, across the glass hallway filled with art of the slug. The mistress in front, me and Nahossa slightly behind her. Past the great doors that led into the arena/throne room. And so we presented ourselve to the Crimelord in his own den, surrounded by all manour of fine folk who wanted our hides. And as soon as Lainaki appeared in front of his fatness, you could see the slight astonishment, followed by a sadistic twinkle in his heavily-lidden eyes. Puffing from his pipe, his grossness was toying with us, suggesting to our spokeswoman that she should put her gladiator in the ring, to test his mettle.

At this point, I considered the mission a failure, we had been trapped in the den of the beast, our objective nowhere in sight. And nowhere to run, the arena only had one entrance. Or at least, nowhere to run right now. I had one shaved knuckle in a hole left. They hadn't bothered to search me for weapons, scarcely clad as I was, and my blaster was still in reach…

The heavy doors opened, and I had scarcely a moment to register I was supposed to fight a Content Not Found: Lowhhrick, before my gun was in my hand, blaster bolts blazing, and I was legging it past the guards. I could hear chaos erupt behind me, a shrill cry that sounded like it could be a human woman's. I shouted at the wookie to fight, hoping he was here against his will as well. Adrenaline couring through my veins, legs pumping, I raced across the hallway and into the cargo bay. Nahossa had followed me. Lainaki had not. The Bothan blasted the door controls, causing it to slam shut. Clever, I gave the side entrance the same treatment.

With a moment to catch our breath, Teemo's thugs banging at the closed doors, we quickly distributed tasks, trying to salvage this doomed enterprise as best as possible. Nahossa would search the warehouse and I would enter the comms chamber and see if I could find incriminating evidence. And find it I did, after tripping over the cyber-security and locking myself out of the palace's systems of course. Because I just can't have something good happen without strings being attached. I met back up with Nahossa, who found some medical aids and weapons in the lockers. With the front entrance being locked down for us, there was only one way to go: the landing pad, and hope that someone left something for us to drive there, Grand Theft Tatooine style.

And lo and behold, the fat sausage had parked his luxury yacht there. And only a single guard manning the Laser turret. I vented some of my frustration on the guard. I'm sure he'll appreciate the facial remodeling, couldn't have made him uglier in any case.

Nerve-wracking seconds passed as we tried to get the bulky vessel running. I punched the red button, straining the boat to its breaking point as the engines groaned and huffed. But we were off the port, and into the sand-wastes.

By that time I had made my decision. Even if I survived this ordeal, my time with this band of entrepreneurs was finished. Nahossa went to sleep and I wipped up a link to Annata. We bargained, and I secured myself a ride of planet in exchange for hard evidence that Teemo was building a droid army. At first, I was hesitant to send it over fully, seeing if I could rig up a dead man's switch. But I was tired of all this Bantha drek, and in the end I just wired over everything. Yeah, I was fucked if Annata decided to screw with me, but I was way past the point of caring, exhaustion catching up with me.

It took us several more hours before we arrived at the hive of scum and villainy, and the poor boat was strained beyond reason, she might not ever fly again. I maneauvred above the nearest junkyard and rappeled down, ditching the cruise-speeder then and there. I called up Annata and got my hangar and just went aboard, done with everything. It was only when we flew to orbit that I noticed Nahossa hadn't followed me…

His decision I guess, he was the boss after all. But not my boss anymore…

Kopec - Date unknown, Tatooine - Ryloth

A little while later Teemo’s thugs came back to the gladiator quarters, dragging my neighbour along with them and throwing him back into the cell left of mine. To my utmost surprise one of the gamorreans also had a human female thrown over his shoulder and as they passed by I was shocked and saddened to see that it was Lainaki that he was carrying. She got thrown into the cell right of me. My attempts at communicating with either of them were to no avail as I would later hear that apparently several gamorreans had jumped the wookie after he knocked one of them out in the Arena and Lainaki had been hit by Teemo’s personal blaster.

Eventually though they both woke up and I asked Lainaki how the hell she got herself thrown in here beside me. Apparently, they had gotten away from Trex but had decided to get themselves into the palace to help me escape with a ruse about Zachary wanting to fight in the pit. For a brief moment even I thought that it had been Zachary who beat up my hairy comrade, but Lainaki quickly explained that that hadn’t been the case. Either way, the situation was pretty dire. I remember saying to Lainaki: “While I’m glad to see another friendly face, I must say that I never wanted you inhere my friend. Our hosts aren’t the friendliest bunch”. I showed her my broken and bruised for arms through the bars of my cell and she replied: “I promise I will get you out of here Kopec, we will get away”. She didn’t seem convinced, but at least they hadn’t broken her spirit like they broke my body. A little while later we both retired to our bunks and tried to get some sleep. That night was the roughest one yet. The drugs had left my system and my body felt like it was tearing itself apart, I could hardly move, lost feeling in my right leg, and my face felt like it would burn right through my skull. I remember not being sure whether I even had a left eye anymore. I passed in and out of consciousness, falling through darkness, seeing the faces of my tribesman screaming, and hearing the laughter of the people around the arena…

When I woke up, I checked up on my furry friend who eventually told me he name was Lowhhrick. Apparently neither Zachary or Nahossa had been brought in during the night, so they were either dead or they had escaped. I consulted with Lainaki over the next few hours in between the ‘patrols’ of the fat guard who kep shouting we should keep it down. Lainaki seemed to think that our comrades might have gotten away with some valuable intel for Annata, seeing as they must have left through the workshop (?) room, if they had gotten away in time. Lowhhrick was interested as ever in escaping and it was then that I first heard another voice in the cells: “I WANT TO COME TO!!!”. Apparently the human they brought in a bit earlier was a fella named Pash, and Lainaki had already met him the day before. We all agreed to work together when the time came, well, all except for the scum at the beginning of the hall. The Twi’lek who I had seen the days before wasn’t keen on escaping and called us all sort of names. He’d rather fuck my mother apparently than escape with us.

It was later that day when the attack happened. It all started with a big explosion which caused the entire compound to shutter on its foundation, followed with smaller explosions and the sound of gunfire closing in on our cells. At a certain point the fat guard came running through the courier only to hit the deck with a giant hole burned through his chest. I hit back in my cell, but Lainaki shouted at our unknown saviors: “Please! Please sir, release us. We will fight with you!!”. A giant armored figure (who I would later hear, was the Mandalorion, one of the most notorious bounty hunters in the outer rim) passed my cell, pausing at Lainaki’s cell and threw her the keys. Lainaki freed me and Lowhhrick, and we picked up Pash along the way. The Twi’lek didn’t seem the least bit interested in being released and threw every insult he could find our way while we left the cells. Making our way over to the workshop we encountered a giant hole where the thick metal door used to be. Inside we found our gear, along with a completely smashed workshop. The only thing still intact was the service droid who I recognized as the droid who patched me up after the two fights. Lainaki noticed a restraining bolt on the droid and after removing it, the droid seemed to ‘awake’ from a slumber. His name was 41-VEX and he had been in the service of Teemo for as long as he could remember; I offered him to join us while we made our way out of the city to our ship and he complied. In the meanwhile Lainaki had checked the other crates for valuables and our new wookie friend had found himself a Vibro axe and blaster pistol.

As we entered the great hall and made our way to the front gate I expected to see a battlefield, but what we encountered was more akin of a slaughter. Teemo’s men hadn’t stand a chance against the fire power that came through here. Amongst the bodies of Teemo’s thugs we saw several few other men bearing the mark of Jabba. It was then we realized that Zachary and Nahossa had succeeded in handing over the correct intel to Annata, who in his turn had kept his word. Jabba had learned from Teemo’s power play and had moved fast and hard to crush any sign of defiance. Looking out over the city of Mos Shuuta, we did however see a city engulfed in conflict. Blaster fire came from everywhere and the 5 of us decided to use the ally ways in order to avoid confrontation. Lainaki and Pash walked in on several of Teemo’s men however which let to them being chased for several blocks. Me, Lowhhrick and Vex had been able to stay out of trouble and we decided to go straight towards landing bay Arrek, hoping to fiend our friends there. Arriving at the landing bay we found an exhausted Pash and Lainaki, who pointed at the ship with a smile on her face. The Lucky Guess was still there and as she looked around she said :“lets hope there are no droids around this time éh Kopec”.

At that point I heard Nahossa’s voice coming out of my pocket. I pulled my coms out of them, a little surprised they still worked, and put them on. “Kopec, Lainaki, come in! Kopec, Laina”. “Yes, Nahossa, is that you? You’re alive?!” I replied. I had never been so happy to hear our Botan friends voice. “Hell yeah I’m alive, even more so, I’m in the gladiator cells of Teemo with a squad of Jabba’s men, where the hell are you two?!”. “Well I’ll be damned, Ik, you and Zachary really came through. Me and Lanaiki and a couple of other prisoners are actually already at the Lucky guess… well euh, waiting for you guys! Where is Zachary btw, is he on coms?”.

He wasn’t on coms, he wasn’t even still on the planet, I later learned. Zachary and Nahossa had made it to Mos Eisley and had given Annata all the information he needed to proof to Jabba that Teemo was building a droid army in secret. In return Zachary had gotten a cabin, no questions asked, on a container ship leaving the system and Nahossa had received a hideout in the city. Zachary’s final words to Nahossa were apparently: “I hope you find your friends safe and sound, but I’m not getting paid nearly enough to keep risking my neck for a bunch of psycho’s. I honestly hope I don’t see any of you ever again. Farewell.” Nahossa on the other hand didn’t make his way to the appointed safe house and instead contacted Annata again to arrange a spot for him back to Mosh Shuuta. Annata was apparently in an incredibly good mood, after the information on Teemo had made him the rishest shadow broker in this part of the galaxy, and provided him a spot on a speeder back to Mosh Shuta.

On the speeder Nahossa had gathered the attention of most of the thugs, telling them that he knew the Teemo’s palace. Apparently, the hired guns were more interested in filling their pockets than in carrying out Jabba’s orders. After landing at the palace they had made their way to the Throne room where they found the Mandalorian standing on top of Teemo’s corps unloading his weapon into the hutt’s skull. The thugs quickly swarmed the surrounding rooms and quarters in the hope of finding some nice loot. Two thugs stayed with Nahossa and together they found a strongbox, which they agreed to open later out of sight of the others. While searching the cells for me and Lainaki, Nahossa contacted our coms when he didn’t find our lifeless corpses inside our open cells. After contacting us he made his way out of the palace opening the strongbox with his partners in crime. Inside they found 10.000 credits which they split fair and square; knowing good and well that any trickery by one of them would cause the other two to notify the other thugs. He bit the thugs farewell who went back to looting and made his way to the landing bay, while making a giant detour around the city.

Lowhhrick and Vex both joined us on the lucky guess as Pash eagerly took up the position of co-pilote, following the suggestion by Lainaki. In the meanwhile Nahossa asked Annata to notify Teemo’s men not to shoot at the Lucky Guess as we left the airport. We left Mosh Shuta airspace without any issues and as we looked down we saw the ruins of what had been our home for a considerable time. After that I made my way over to Lowhhrick who had taken up a spot in the container room. I thanked him for his help escaping and handed him my last stim pack I had found among my things. He initially refused, pointing to the incredibly sorry state I found myself in but I assured him that I would need quite a lot more than just a stimpack very shortly, while I gestured to my messed up face and leg. I continued by asking where he would like for us to drop him off, now that he was once again a free Wooky, assuring him that any bounty set by Teemo would be forfeit. It was at that point that Lowhhrick looked me straight into the eye as proclaimed: “I would have died in that place. You said you would get me out, and you did. I owe you my life and I will not rest until that debt is repaid.” I was stunned, shocked… and to my own surprise speechless. I oppose slavery with all that I am, but as the same time I understood that this was something different. A life debt is a secret tradition and I would not be the one to bring dishonour to my newly found friend by refusing his service. I would spend the next few hours along my new friend, getting to know him and where he came from. Apparently, his sister and nephew were killed when a Trandoshain raiding party passed by their village a few years ago (?) and he had been sold into slavery to life and fight as a Gladiator. He became very proficient in the art of killing others and as his popularity rose, he was eventually sold to Teemo, where he had been fighting for Teemo’s enjoyment the months before we arrived.

In the meanwhile, we had entered hyperspace and Lainaki informed me that we were traveling to Ryloth and that she had had the time to get to know her co-pilote. Pash turned out to be the self-proclaimed ‘luckiest fella in the entire galaxy’. [Background story need to be written out exactly based on Jonas's notes – Grifting job – hard labour in mines – pirates – imperials kill pirates – Herrichin lets Pash go ]. Our third new companion, 41-Vex, was a medical droid who initially did not care whether we drop him of or let him stay. He only wanted to hone his skill in medicine. After a short discussion, he commented that he could learn a great deal simply from looking at my messed-up face, potentially missing eye and crushed leg. So he decided to stick around for a while. Before arriving at Ryloth we contacted Ota to inform him that the deed was done. The only problem was that after he heared that Teemo had been taken care off he hung up and even disconnected his ‘number’. Apparently the Bothan had no intention of honouring his side of the deal.

When we returned to Ryloth we were pleased to see that there was no imperial star destroyer waiting for us. We were able to land without any problems, and as we entered the city to stock up on supplies, Pash made a hard turn at the first bar we encountered, shouting something along the lines of: “off to get shitfaces fellas, please don’t forget me before you leave. I’ve got a feeling that as long as I stick around you guys, I’m gonne continue getting lucky”. Vex preferred staying on the ship, where he would try and set up a sterile environment as he was apparently very excited about ‘dealing with my face and eye situation’. In Nabath we first made our way to the safe house in order to inform Nin and B'ura B'an that we would have to lay low for a while, and so that we wouldn’t be able to take them up on their offer to smuggle ryll from New Meen. B'ura B'an answered to door and he was equally surprised as confused when we showed up. “I see that you’ve traded in that foul mouthed no good human for some actual muscle?” as he looked at Lowhhrick. We discussed the matters at hand, and both Nin and B'ura B'an understood our situation. When I asked about New Meen I heard that the town was slowly becoming an actual low level stronghold and that no other thugs had even dared to venture near the town or attack their shipments of ryll.

In addition to informing Nin and B'ura B'an that we would be laying low for a while we asked about a rumour, that we had discussed on our way over to Ryloth. The story of the ghost treasure ship, a last remaining ship from a separatist fleet that is told to carry treasure beyond belief. Nin and B'ura B'an knew nothing about it. Nor could they inform us on the location of the Imperial Star destroyer Dark Rose, another thing that had been on our mind after leaving Tatooïne. They did however offer to restock our ship with supplies as token of their appreciation for permanently dealing with the Teemo situation. In addition they promised to keep an eye out for our friend Trex and assured us that if he would ever set foot in Nabath, he would not leave the city alive. As we left I made sure to follow the ancient Twi’lekian customs that are appropriate when saying goodbye to tribesmen before periods of long absence.

Back in the inner city Lainaki gathered information on the separatist ship any way she could. Later on the ship she told us of this old Twi’lek who kept talking in riddles only to scam her out of 5 credits, but who did give her the name of the ship: “Sa Nalaor”. She then used this name to call upon one of the contacts we met at the Duke’s party a few days earlier. [Info from Jonas … ] In the meanwhile I, Lowhhrick and Nahossa made our way to the market place where we traded in a blaster pistol with 600 extra credits for a heavy blaster. A terrible deal in my opinion, but in all fairness, me and Nahossa constantly interrupting eachother didn’t aid our bargaining position. On our way to the ship, I left a brief note on the notice board addressing the collective that thanks to Kopec's efforts droid 41-VEX was now free. We all met up at the ship, where we went looking for Pash. When we entered the bar we encountered a very happy Pash who couldn’t wait to join us “ON THEHUNTFORTHEGHOSTTREASHURESHIP”………. Yeaaahh, well. I convinced Nahossa to let Pash pick out a bottle of the best liquor so we could celebrate later on the ship.

Back on the lucky guess, we each enjoyed a lucky Martini. Which turned out to be a martini, with a parasol on top!

Ik - Date unknown, outer space - Tatooine

Na'Hosa stared through the escape bay window as the pod drifted away into the void. He felt a breeze of air as Lainaki rushed back to the control room.

Ah, yes, the plan. The master plan is that Lainaki records a message, specifying the current location and stating that she left a little present for her starcrossed lover. As soon as Admiral Tenebris sends some guys over to collect the present, they'll bring the old ship crew to her destroyer. Orpa and her brother can (truthfully) claim that they were not in control when the ship went into hyperspace, saving them from living their lifes hiding from the Empire.

Na'Hosa sighed. He didn't like this plan at all. What happened to Orpa and her brother was unfortunate, but sending two people with a perfect descripion of our team and our destination to an obsessed ex-girlfriend of Lainaki is a terrible idea. Orpa and her brother will hate us anyway, saving them will only result in two more people trying to track down our team. It would be wiser to abandon them, but Na'Hosa knew that Kopec nor Lainaki would ever agree to such a proposal. Their feelings of pity and regret, their conscience is their weakness.

When Ik entered the control room, Lainaki had finished a recording. She had tried to broadcast the message to the destroyer that beared her name and apparently, despite the long range, the broadcast went down very well. Unfortunate.

Na'Hosa listened to the recording. '[See uploaded fragment S1.10-B]' It sent shivers down his spine. Tenebris will know how close her old girlfriend is and hunt us down.

Kopec took the transmitter Ota had given and pressed the connect button. The waiting tone went over.
Ota took the call: 'Yes. Have you completed your mission?'
Kopec responded: 'We have a message that needs to be delivered to the star destroyer that is just outside of the atmosphere of Geonosis. Can you arrange this?'
It turned out that Ota could arringe this. Kopec transmitted the message and the call ended.

'Allright, time to plan our journey to Tatooine', Lainaki said. She moved to the hyperspace route planner and started working her magic. The results were impressive: she managed to come up with a tour that lets us arrive on Tatooine precisely in time for the deal.

The team started to discuss their strategy to obtain incriminating evidence on Teemo. Based on their earlier work experience with Teemo, they could draw the following map and description of the building:

""

There are usually two Gomorrean guards at the main entrance and two additional guards at the second doorway. Then there is a reception room, where people with varying affections for Teemo can be found, waiting to enter the main part of the palace.

Another interesting area is the gladiator cell block. The cells can hold skilled fighters that fight for Teemo because they enjoy fighting (or money), but they may also hold some prisoners that are forced to fight. In the case that it comes to a fight, we may find some though allies (or some tough enemies) in this area.

From the perspective of the mission, the communications hub (and adjacent server room) and Teemo's throne room/the cantina seem to be the most interesting.
Unfortunately, no one of the team has ever entered the communications hub. There may be some guards at the entrance, and some other people working at computers on the inside. Getting access to a monitor can be hard, but all Teemo's data is logged here, so there should be a lot of incriminating evidence (although some good computer skills might be needed to find it).
The cantina is part of the central part of the building, some sort of large gladiatorial arena. At one end of this arena, there is a bar & cantina, usually holding several visitors, at the other end Teemo is seated. The arena is this large that Teemo has no clear full-view of the cantina, so it may be interesting to enter this area and look to get some useful information from the visitors.
""

The team decided that the best course of action after landing at the pad and helping to deliver the cargo would be to first go to the cantina (possibly by telling the guards that a signature/payment from Teemo is needed, as well as a small refresher). If no information is found out over there, plan B is to somehow sneak into the server rooms and try out fortune over there. The fallback plan (to which it hopefully never comes) is to visit the gladiatorial cells, gain (and set free) some allies and try to kill Teemo on the spot.

"All right, that seems like a reasonable plan", Kopec said.
"There is one more thing we should do before we arrive:", Lainaki added, "we should check out what our cargo is look and for hidden storage rooms. Ship owners know their complete cargo"
Na'Hosa confirmed: "Good point".

They moved to the cargo bay. Boxes with B1-battle droids, lots of them. Lainaki took a picture: "That is in itself already some good evidence pointing to Teemo creating an army"

Upon further inspection, the group found some hidden storage rooms, but these all seemed to be empty.

"Well, that's about all we can do before action begins". Na'Hosa yearned. He wondered how long it was since he had a good night of sleep.

However, Lainaki was not finished: "One more thing, maybe we can turn out comlinks permanently on and connect them to the ship's main computer? In that way, everything will be permanantly recorded, and can be used as evidence against Teemo."
"That sounds like an excellent idea, definitely do your thing", Na'Hosa confirmed as he walked away, hoping to catch a good night's sleep. He didn't realize that Tatooine was ony hours away…

[Editor's note: Lainaki did actually manage to succesfully link up the board computer and the comlinks]

Hi Sweety,
I heard you made Admiral? Admiral Tenebris… Has a nice ring to it I have to admit!
Well, it seems like you almost had me there…
But don't worry, I left a little present for you to remember me.
Oh, and looove your ship's name!

[coordinates of escape pod embedded in message]

Translation for those having trouble understanding women ;) or my sarcasm
(overall tone of the message is overly cheerful, which Daminas really hates)

Hi craziest ex-girlfriend ever,
I am very disappointed with your carreer choices.
Thank god I was able to launch this freighter into hyperdrive!
I left two good people behind whose life I just destroyed by running away from you. I feel really guilty but at least your attention will be diverted away from Tatooine.
Damn, U crazy girl! Just get over me already! Although I might perhaps still miss you…

Orpa - Date unknown, Geonosis - outer space

Orpa pulled the ship off the surface of Geonosis, a black burn next to the main entry door, a leftover from the what appeared to be a boarding skirmish of the new guests.
The Geonosean desert wastelands grew smaller and Orpa's brother turned around to the cockpit entrance to meet the new guests. The droid merchants. Wrex greeted them enthusiastically.
They seem to be friendly people and Piddock paid a nice extra to take them with us. Orpa felt a little more confident for the rest of the journey.

Suddenly the scanner started beeping. Wrex looked up and stated that a big ship was coming. A star destroyer came nearby. The light from the intercom flickered when a transmission message came in from the ship.
A cool, professional voice: 'This is star destroyer Darkrose, representing the Galactic Empire. Pease send us your flight records and wait for permission to leave before proceeding.'
A routine check. Luckily her brother and she recently made sure that they were officially licensed merchants. Orpa sent the data to the destroyer and looked at the guests. 'You are not in the flight records of course. Star destroyers typically have a life scanner, so this could get a little bit annoying. Don't worry though, I'm sure they run into situations like this all the time, they 'll probably just do a routine check.'
The female droid merchant did not seem confident. Her face was white as a sheet of paper and she was typing maniacally typing on the hyperspace planning computer. 'Are you ok?' Orpa asked.
The voice from the destroyer was back: 'Your records mention only two people aboard. Is that information correct?' Orpa started apologizing: 'We do have some extra passengers. The records may not be fully up-to-date. Times are harsh, and we need to make some money to make a living.'
That should do it. The voice responded, slightly annoyed: 'Right. Please state the names and occupancies of the other travelers.' Orpa answered: 'They sell droid parts, we have one male, his name is…' Suddenly the panicking women rushed forward, threw Orpa aside and pulled the hyperspace lever.

Orpa was shocked, 'No!', she shrieked. She wrestled with the woman, who was surprisingly determined to hold down the lever. Eventually, she managed to push her off the dashboard and flip the hyperspace lever. Ryloth nor the space destroyer seemed to be anywhere near. A giant asteroid was however, coming closer alarmingly fast. Orpa grabbed the steering bat and avoided the impending doom effortlessly.
She looked around and saw no more threats outside of the ship. Time to deal with those on the inside. She turned around and looked at the trembling woman on the floor. 'Why did you do that? Why did you run? It was just a routine check.'
The woman replied: 'There are people on that ship who search us, they would have recognized us. Thinks could go very bad. I saved us'.
Orpa was furious: 'You saved us!' She looked at her brother. Wrex looked defeated: 'We sent them our records, they know us. We're on their wanted list now. Our life as merchants is over. We're outcasts now.'
Orpa added: 'We cannot even deliver our goods now, they know where we were going. So long our standing with Piddock. You saved us! Idiots, they look for millions of people, they would have never recognized you, you’re not that special.'
The woman stood up from the floor: 'Now I remember, I do have a disguise kit, maybe I shouldn't have pulled the lever'
'Maybe!' Orpa ran away in anger to the sleeping rooms.

She ran to her bed room. Time to think about the future. She thought about her brother, poor guy. He didn't deserve to end up like this. Their life never had been a walk through the park though, they would make it through. She had some contacts in Ryloth, maybe they know a way to fix this. But first some sleep. She started undressing herself, when suddenly the door opened and a Bothan was looking at her with wide open eyes.
'Get out!' she yelled. The door closed and she could hear him leaving while talking to her brother, their voices dying out slowly. Suddenly Wrex yelled: 'Mutiny!'
No! This cannot be true! She jumped out of her bed and locked the door. After a while she heard voices at the other side. 'Come out.' the crazy woman said. 'We have your brother!'
'I have a gun' Orpa shouted as confidently as she could. She had nothing.
'I have killed people before'. A bleating Bothan voice.

The Twi'Lek started reasoning: 'Listen Orpa, if you tell the Empire representatives that we forcefully took your ship from you and that we were the ones that ran away, you will no longer be searched for. You and your brother’s name will be completely clean. You can gain nothing by hiding in there. If you surrender however, we will put your brother and you in an escape pod and we'll make sure that someone picks you up.'
He was right. Orpa sighed deeply and opened the door. Her brother and she were indeed guided to an escape pod. 'One day you will thank us for this', the woman said. 'And we'll make sure that you get a new ship', the Twi'lek added. He threw some food in the escape pod. 'Yeah, you can count on us, definitely', the Bothan added. He pressed the pod's escape button and quickly winked before the doors closed and the pod was ejected into outer space.

Kopec - Date unknown, Ryloth

Pffewhh, I'm glad we made it out of there in one piece. Piddoch did not seem happy at all that we couldn't effort any of his merchandise. And for a while there I though that we might had to make a run for it hoping that Zachery would be on the look out for trouble. Luckily Piddoch's goons guarding the entrance didn't feel the need to test their expensive looking new toys. On the topic of expensive toys, we definitively should keep Piddoch in mind for if we require an upgrade in firing power.

Back aboard the ship Lainaki declared that it was her turn to take some well earned R&R as she gathered all the pillows from the other 2 beds to make herself as comfortable as possible. As I left the crews quarters I went to check up on Ana, only to find her past out in the engineering bay. She looked pretty stylish with her sunglasses on, while balancing her chair on only two legs. I didn't want to risk breaking her neck by waking her so, I just prayed for the best as I made my way towards to galley, drawn in by a surprisingly amazing smell.

On the way there I bumped into Nahossa who seemed to be as intrigued as I by the smell. Arriving at the main cargo hold we were greeted by a welcome sight; Zachery had prepared his famous stew and had even made (a more or less successful) effort to turn two crates into a cosy dining table. Sitting at the table I made the remark that the water tight containers were doing an excellent job, it hadn't smelled as good about this ship since… well, since ever. Nahossa agreed as he started fantasizing about all the credits we could make from the containers contents. It was at that point that I thanked him for taking care of the pelt situation by himself, sparing me from smelling like a Rancor's ass for the second time in three days.

Nahossa however seemed confused, he thought that I had taken care of the pelts!? I, of course had done no such thing, referencing my "Rancor's ass" argument. Zachery suggested that one of the ladies must have probably done it, which sounded crazy to me. Ana? Voluntary helping the rest of us out after we took her crane from her? I don't think so. Besides that I seriously doubted the fact that Lainaki could have handled the weight of moving the 6 pelts by her self. This left us with the option of one of Nin's men taking care of it, which seemed even more troublesome. I noticed the panic in Nahossa's eyes as he made his way to the crate, carefully opening it and afterwards looking back at us in complete horror. "They're GONE". he shouted, "all 6 of them, just GONE". "ALL MY MONEY, GONE!?".

My eyes turned to terror as well as I realized how royally screwed we were. One of Nin's engineers must have discovered the pelts while patching up the ship and alerted Nin. But why did she not confront us when we returned to Nabath? My mind went racing, trying to figure out what had transpired. Zachery on the other hand merely mumbled something along the lines of :"Good riddance" while he scooped himself some stew and asked if I wanted some as well. "Really Zachery, good riddance?!" I replied. "We just found out that god knows how many people are aware of the fact that we had Wooky pelts aboard our ship. How can u stay calm like that?!". In the meanwhile Nahossa had started pacing in circles around the improvised dinner table, seemingly using his fingers to get an estimate of how much wealth he had just lost. Zachery replied: "Well, I mean, I just think that we're better off without them. They were an issue, now that issue is solved. Whatever happened, it turned out well. We got away from Nabath without further hick ups right? So stop your jabbering and dig in. I've made it extra tasty to celebrate our succesful dealings on Ryloth. Plus you must be hungry from taking to all those people at the Duke's party. On that note, could u get us up to speed on what intel you acquired? We have to inform Anata before we go to the other Duke if I remember correc…" "What do you mean, it turned out well?!" Nahossa interrupted Zachary. "Is losing thousands of credits a good turn out to you? Now that I think of it, you were the only one vocally opposed to keeping them aboard. Aaaandnd and… AND you were grumpy as fck when we woke up at the safehouse the day after we arrived." "And you let Anna drive, without putting up a fight so you could sleep the entire way through" I added. At that point Nahossa had stopped pacing around and faced Zachery directly, I had never seen the Bothan so upset. This was something that he cared about a great deal. I remained seated but looked Zachery stared Zachery right in the face: "Why were you so tired that day? And what did you do the night before?!".

If I remember correctly the stand off took quite some time; Zachary had managed to distract his employer with a tale of a late night drinking and dancing, followed by a 10 mile run through the city. But I wasn't so easily fooled; I had seen Zachary after a night of heavy drinking two days earlier and the morning he had spend in the speeder was nothing like that. In the end, Zachary owed up to it. He had taken it upon himself to sneak out the night we landed on Ryloth and disposed of those vile things. "No amount of credits is worth losing your soul over, even if you fouls were to blind to see it" Zachery stated in a rather calm deminor "and if you're going fire me over that, well, good luck making it without me out there. I give you a week". The argument lasted for at least another hour. Nahossa was just upset about the amount of credits Zachery had cost the company and eventually made Zachery sign a contract legally binding him to repay a debt of 3.000 credits to the company. I wonder if Nahossa realized at the time he was getting 'penny's on the dollar', or well, hairs on the pelt? In any case Zachery did, cause he signed the thing straight away.

For me however, the point of contention had nothing to do with the monetary value of the pelts. Zachery had ignored a democratic vote for the sake of following his own consciousness. "You didn't have the right and you sure as hell didn't have the authority to make that call." I whispered through my teeth. "If you have a problem with the way this group does things, you bring it up and we discuss it. Calmly. Just like you did, when you warned me about how dangerous riling up the town's folk was. You were right back then and I listened." "What do you you listened? You were the only reason there was any threat to us, the rest of this so called 'group'. You nearly got us killed back there, twice! I'm the only reason you made it that dessert alive" The human had stopped eating his stew and straightened his back as he looked down on me across the table. "You, Kopec, do not get to tell me what I can or can not do." … "Are u sure about that?" I replied as I looked up at him. Zachary's eyes turned red and he grabbed me by my vest with one hand and dragged me across the table to his end. "Listen Lek. You do not have any power over me and if I need to remind you of that you just let me know. I'm sure I can free up 5 minutes to get it through your tiny head". As I was hanging there, dragged half way across the table I replied: "Or, I could just wait till you fall asleep and slit your throat and be done with it." Zachery lost it at that point and grabbed me firmly with both hands firmly around my vest putting his face as close as possible to myn stating: "Well then, who's gonne stop me from putting your ass through this table right now, Kopec?". I took a deep breath and looked Zachery right in the eyes: "No one will stop you Zachary. But you know what the difference is between me and you? I'm not afraid to die and you are. You are scared shitless. It's what drives you to act all tough and what keeps you up at night. It is all you can think about. And I? Well, I've done it twice already. So if you're going to kill me do it right now, or put me down and let me finish my stew." A few moments later Zachary let go of my shirt and we ate as I discussed the meeting with Duke Piddoch.

Putting all the pieces of information together it became clear that our best shot was to try and get Annata the proof about Timo's powerplay, so that he could inform Jabba and the Huts could work it out. In order to get that information we had to convince duke Dimmoch to let us board his shipment which was leaving for Timo later that day. We contacted Ota and told him the details of the information we had gathered. (mysterious droid blueprint purchases, droid technician disappearance and decapitation, potential powerplay etc.) Ota liked the new plan of letting Jabba deal with Timo himself a lot better than us going in guns blazing and wished us good luck with our audience with the second duke.

After calling Ota we made our way to Treleck Hive where we were surprised to see two armed Genocians waiting to escort us to the duke Dimmoch. We had hoped on gathering some additional information in a local cantina, but the hive Treleck did not seem to offer the same amenities as our previous host's hive. In any case I doubt they would have let us go anywhere but the Duke's place. We were told to leave our weapons and we did so willingly. Only Zachary apparently forgot he was carrying brass knuckles cause when one of the guards spotted them, he played dumb and asked the guard to return them when we got back. When we arrived at the Duke's place we were greeted by an enormous throneroom, stacked with at least a hundred of geared up Geonocians along both sides of the room. Zachery signaled us to kneel as we approached the duke which seemed to pleas him greatly and because of his and Nahossa's combined rhetoric we got the duke's cooperation. The fact that Timo had ties to the empire, he worked together close u with a Kubaz and was potentially making a power play; was enough for the Duke to say that he wouldn't put much in our way with regards to making it onboard the Lucky Guess (the cargo ship leaving for Mosh Shuta). He only stated that we should keep his name out of it, at all time. After thanking the duke we made our way back to our ship to plan our next moves. We informed Ota, who didn't seem interested in intermediary results but who did however confirm to Zachary what kind of payment there would be, should Timo disappear from the picture.

By nightfall we made our way to dock AA7 where we found three armed Genocians standing in our way. Luckely Nahossa spotted an airduck that was under construction and before I knew it my comrades were inside the airduck in order to sneak by the three guards. However as soon as I tried to do the same I spotted a very familiar Ghant walking straight towards me with his weapon raised. It was Vrixx'tt, the bounty hunter we had encountered earlier that day at duke Piddoch's fundraiser. As I tried to knod in his direction he smiled back, raising his weapon even further. I guess he definitively knew who we were and we looked like nothing else but a walking talking payout. Without saying another word I made me way to the guards down the corridor who stopped me right in my tracks: "you are not authorized, only authorized personal is allowed to be here" they declared in unison. "Oh well, but I am, I am an acquaintance of duke Dimmoch. U should contact him and tell him that you are keeping up one of his guys". The Geonocians looked nothing if not confused and during their confusion I turned my words into action and walked straight by the guards. As I walked towards the doors of the Cargoship I looked behind me to see the funny look on Vrixx'tt his face. However as I turned around I did not see anything funny, the Geonocians recognized Vrixx'tt and just let him pass. Vrixx'tt increased his pace and his smile had turned to a very unpleasant grin.

It was at that point that Zachary appeared from a side room. There was a split second where all six of us were just staring at each other in disbelief and confusion. Zachary had been able to bypass the guards using the vent but the Geonocians were now facing exactly the way that he came. The next seconds happened really quickly; Zachary and later Nahossa dashed towards the Cargoship's doors as the Geonocians opened fire on them (stun setting, gaging from the impact on the ship's hull), but they made it. Vrixxt on the other hand opened fire at me and he was shooting to kill if I could assume that from the giant scorch mark he left on the side of the hull. However it was at that point that the Geonocians opened fire on Vrixxt. To this day I'm not entirely sure whether he hit on of them or it was just merely the fact that the Ghant was shooting at a 'supposed friend' of Dimmoch. Either way, we got out.

Aboard the ship we made our way to the cockpit where we were we received a very warm welcome from Wex and a slightly cool remark from his sister Orpa. I introduced Zachary and Nahossa to the Koreleans as our ship entered orbit. It was at that point that an alarm started to go off and before anything was said Zachary rushed off to one of the batteries. Orpa looked over at her brother as he was checking the scanners. "I've got something" Wrex said. "Well, WHAT do you have" Orpa replied. Wrex looked up and mumbled… "it's something big".

Anna - Date unknown, Ryloth - Geonosis

"I have a project for a group like yours," Ota, the short and stout Bothan started.

I couldn't suppress a slight huff of frustration. This was our reward for the entire New Meen debacle? Another assignment? No money, no gear, no weapons. Yeah, they fixed "our" ship and gave us some medical attention, but I'm quite sure that was our reward for bringing B'ura B'an to Ryloth in the first place. And our fearsome leaders are just taking it. Can't believe they made me give up all the parts I scavenged from the crane and the steam roller.

"This is bullshit," I mouthed breathlessly as the Bothan pulled out a holographic projector. It showed images of us on Mos Shuuta, the Krayt Fang and our faces. Then in nice big letters: "Wanted. 50K credits reward by Teemo."

Great. So Kopec was right about the Kubaz. And I'm sure this Bothan is just showing us this message just to warn us and certainly not put extra pressure on us to do whatever the fuck he wants us to.

"With a reward like that, you might find yourselves hunted by people like Bosk, or even The Mandalorian," he continued. Yeah, or blackmailed by some random beast dude.

"I have a proposition. The project I offer will bring you into contact with people who deal with Teemo," from the corner of my eyes, I saw Lainaki raise her eyebrows, but Ota continued before she could interject, "Teemo has a deal planned with Duke Dimmock, I want you to make sure it falls through."

"I am invited to Duke Piddock's business party, it's his way of introducing himself onto the black market. The Geonosians have no trading positions under the Empire's rule so they have no choice but to turn to illegal paths. He deals in weaponry and wants to use the party to sell and to do some networking. I know he had a deal planned with Teemo, but something changed his mind. Now Teemo has turned to Duke Dimmock, perhaps if he knew what changed Piddock's mind, that trade will get canceled as well. That's where you come in."

"So what changed Piddock's mind?"

"Ah, you'll have to find out. I only know that it was Piddock's initiative to break off the deal. Other than that, I know that Teemo has been promoting a Kubaz spy, Geonosians don't tend to like Kubaz," Ota added, "You'll go as my representatives to Piddock's party. Prepare a good cover story, you never know if there are imperial spies around."

"And our reward?"

"Well. Teemo probably had the credits to pay your bounty hunters on him. When you eliminate him, that will be your reward," and with that, the Bothan left.

[Author's note: Apparently Kubaz like to eat insects and Geonosians are insectoids. Yeah.]

We left in the morning for Taris. Our Krayt Fang was fixed up… sufficiently. Lainaki and Kopec seemed pleased, but I was sure that if I had stayed to lead the technical crew, it would've been in a much better state. The waterproof box we had ordered stood in the cargo hold and we assumed the wookie pelts were place inside of it, because the smell was gone. We decided that our cover story would be that we trade in droid parts.

The trip was calm and Lainaki amused herself during it by inspecting some sort of alien shell that was on board. Kopec took a much-needed shower.

______________________________________________

[TARIS - Geonosis]

We received a request to leave all our weapons on board, so we complied. A few heavily armed, giant Geonosian soldiers escorted us to the Duke's party. They led us to a lavish cantina, clearly designed to attract cosmopolites. Piddock was not messing around.

Inside, a band was playing and the guests were clearly having a good time. We decided to talk a bit with the guests first, before approaching the Duke.

First we spoke to the human siblings Orpa and Wrex Vion. They run a taxi business and let us know that they would be willing to ship droids around as well. He's a funny guy, she's clearly the brains of the operation. They told us that the Toydarian guest at the party, Anatta, works for Jabba the Hutt.

Kopec tried to talk to the Sullustan, Mu Nanb, but he said he wanted to listen to the band first. "I'm just a tourist," he claimed. He was sharply dressed, but very young.

Lainaki talked, well, flirted, with an elegant woman at the bar, Maru Jakkar. She's apparently interested in like culture and art and history and stuff? The Geonosians were nearly all wiped out, so their culture is like super special to her or something. I don't get it, but Lainaki obviously liked it. Maru is not just in the relic business, but she's also the front woman of a syndicate operating in the core worlds. She warned us that there were some shady deals going on when we mentioned droid technology: series of suspicious payments for seemingly worthless auctions and B1 battle droid plans had been spotted on the trading post – all traced back to Tattooine. She also told us that the Gant at the party was a bounty hunter of certain repute, called Vrixx'tt.

Then we spoke to Anata from Mos Eisley. Turned out he didn't deal in items, but in information. We headed to one of the private rooms so we could talk discretely. He was a major help, but also an expensive one.

The droid and the Gant approached us, but didn't teach us anything more. The Gant claimed he was a representative of an informal organisation that promotes the interest of insectoid species.

Then it was time to talk to the host, Duke Piddock. He told us he had canceled the deal with Teemo because the Hutt had hired a Kubaz (Thwheek). In retaliation, Teemo abducted the droid technician Sivor, but Piddock had no proof of that. When we asked if other Geonosians would still make deals with Teemo despite the Kubaz, he immediately named Dimmock. "He has lower standards. Vile, no moral compass. He sells inferior droids and weapons."

When he realised that we weren't actually going to order any weapons, we were asked to immediately leave the party and were escorted back to our ship. All in all, I thought things went well.

Anna - Date unknown, Ryloth

The party continued on throughout the entire night. The Twi'leks were shooting wildly around with their new guns as they danced and sang and celebrated life. I looked around. Two of the members of this tiny community got shot tonight, shot dead. Did they just not care? Did Twi'leks experience grief in some other way than humans did?

Then I spotted her. A tiny, broken shadow of a woman: Amatseri, Jeff's wife. She seemed to be carrying all the sadness in the world on her slender shoulders as she sat next to his lifeless body. I took a hesitant step towards her, but quickly turned away. My presence was not appreciated in this community and what could I say? "I'm sorry your husband – who was a barely functioning half-wit – got shot by some power hungry maniac. I'm also aware I aimed two blasters straight at your dearly departed husband barely two days ago but in my defense, he was about to kill all the "humies" and I'm a humie". Yeah, let's not, Anna.

A nauseous feeling rose up from the deepest pit of my stomach straight into my throat. I wanted to leave. Leave this place, leave this planet. But leave to where? Whether I wanted it or not, this crew was the closest thing I had to a family and home was wherever our ship landed. Images from Anthan Prime flashed before my eyes and I quickly shook my head. "Come on, girl, these are the choices you've made," I muttered to myself, "put on a smile, distract yourself, keep your eyes on the future, looking back never does you any good".

A shaky breath in and out. A slight squint of the eyes and a smile on the lips. I spotted B’ura B’an walking by with a giant communications device, he had his serious face on. Distraction spotted. I followed him to the table and watched as he called Nyn Kablo. He informed her that Ang Dromb was gone and that the people of New Meen had guns now. He clearly seemed displeased about that last fact. I noticed Nyn's surprised look at the news of Ang Dromb. Did she not expect us to succeed? From behind B'ura B'an, I gave a big thumbs up towards the camera, "great news, right?!". I trust none of these people.

B'ura B'an turned off the communicator and walked off again. I saw that Lainaki followed him inside a tent, so I let them be. Leader talks, never fun. I walked over to Kopec to help him collect some scrap. "For the pyres," he said.

The tone of the party suddenly shifted. Apparently, Ougid'nahuk had decided he was going to execute the captured bandits. "Kopec, you need to stop them," I started, "they won't hesitate to kill us, the only other humans around here, too". Lainaki got out of the tent and yelled over at Kopec that he should intervene, which seemed to convince him. "Anna, get ready to leave," she added. Didn't have to ask me twice. I ran over to the speeder, got in and turned the engine on.

Kopec somehow managed to convince Ougid'nahuk that it was better that the humans knew they had to fear him and let them spread the word, than it was to kill them. The bandits were released and immediately they ran off into the desert. Their chances of survival seemed slim, though.

After that situation was defused, we all decided to get some sleep.

______________________________________________

I got up bright and early so I could take the crane (you know, my crane) and the steam roller's engines apart. I had an entiiiiiiire cargo levitator full of high quality scrap. Then, I was forced by Lainaki, Kopec and B'ura B'an to put it all back. All of it. The steam roller parts, alright, I could understand that, but they had given my crane to the Twi'leks without consulting me. I felt hurt and humiliated. By the time I was done, it was already noon.

Then, we left for Nabat, but not before paying Ang Dromb's place a visit. We found a safe, but couldn't get it open. We did find some interesting emails on his computer though.

"Yes it’s a risky business. I’m amazed Trex managed to get away with that droid technician Sivor without causing the whole thing to fall down on our heads. You never know with kriffing bugs, with their clades and castes and such. Annoy the one on top and you lose every other link in the chain. Start from scratch. I thought this whole deal was going to fall through when we lost the support of Duke Piddock, but Dimmock – he might be the bug for us."

"Decapitated! Ha! Well, make sure he never gets to hear about that! I mean, don’t get me wrong, the bugs are kriffing hypocrites on the issue if you ask me. They’re more than happy to see dozens of drones squandered in their own games, but if he knew what happened with Sivor, it’d be all over for the deal. Hah, putting a techgeek in the ring against you! What a way to go."

______________________________________________

[NABAT]

The place was bustling when we arrived back at Nabat. There were stalls everywhere, the market was buzzing. On our way to Nyn's, Kopec swore he spotted Thwheek, the Kubaz bounty hunter, in the crowd. I dismissed it and called him a racist for assuming all Kubaz look alike.

Nyn greeted us warmly when we arrived and quickly introduced us to a short and stout Bhotan, named Ota. He had some very interesting news for us…

Lainaki - Date unknown, Ryloth

That damn Twi’lek… A bucket of piss, really? He really thinks he’s the man now we’re on his home planet. Sometimes I wish I left him in the desert. He didn’t get me though, but I did get him! He will be smelling like piss all day. I guess it’s up to me to take the guard for the rest of the night after all.

The other Twi’lek were having the time of their lives, partying all night long. The ones we asked to guard the prisoners even left their post to join the party. But this time I made sure we stripped them of everything and tightened the ropes quite well.

Zachary was the first one to wake up, out of the entire village. He found some food, checked on the thugs and decided to take on the guard for the rest of the morning. As long as the village was sleeping, someone had to be on guard. Before leaving we discussed that we won’t be attacking Ang Dromb’s hideout today. With all those hangovers, it wouldn’t bode well. Now I don’t really have anything to do, so I did a quick check of the status of that crane we ‘acquired’.

One of the first Twi’lek who woke up was Geoff. I engaged with him in some small talk, congratulating him on his victory in last night’s drinking competition between him and Zachary. Geoff tells me he’d like to have another competition. Well, he said: “GEOFFWANNAPLAYAGAIN”. Zachary interrupted by telling Geoff that Kopec is a much better drinker. Geoff picked up the nearest barrel of booze and stomped off to the tents.

Afterwards, we heard Geoff had found Kopec in the sand showers. Sadly, Kopec managed to convince Geoff that a drinking competition with him would not be fun since Geoff would win anyways.

Zachary decided to go ‘talk’ with the thugs. I was not that interested in seeing naked men so I decided to go practice with the new blaster pistol we took from those thugs. He didn’t have any success getting information out of them anyway.

So then it happened again: B’ura B’an and Kopec had another ‘debate’. I guess that happened in the sand showers as well. The entire village could hear them ‘expressing their arguments’. It was an interesting topic though. B’ura B’an wanted our spare guns to distribute them among his people. Kopec didn’t seem to like that for some obscure reasons. It reminded me of the debate with the apprentice legislature years ago, about the Military Creation Act. While they were having their little fight, I asked some villagers if they wanted to try to shoot these blasters as well. I guess B’ura B’an isn’t that big of an idol we thought, even when they can hear him shout “Give my people some damn blasters!” they still didn’t accept my offer. Except for Geoff, but I tried to make him promise to listen to me and apparently he doesn’t like authority… Aametseri, his wife, did manage to calm him down. But I think I might have scared her when trying to explain what happened.

I decided to take matters into my own hands that afternoon. Zachary and I approached B’ura B’an with the offer of some blasters if we can train the Twi’lek in using them as well. He eagerly accepted and 5 minutes later the entire town was lined up ready for training. Zachary proved to be an excellent tutor (I’m starting to like this guy) and after a while, some of the people started to hit their targets, once in a while that is.

Should have kept someone on guard duty though, late in the afternoon three construction vehicles approached the village. I ran to Kopec, who was apparently sleeping, and still naked, against a rock. Zachary selected the four best gunners, but the other Twi’lek start panicking when Ang Dromb got out of his vehicle and started shouting threats through a megaphone. B’ura B’an managed to calm his people down and took them all to the mine, where Kopec joined them a little later, finally clothed (but still stinking of piss).

Ang Dromb gave us five minutes to give ourselves up, more than enough time to prepare our defences. After those five minutes, the vehicles started moving into the village. The steamroller passed near me and I opened fire on the driver. Meanwhile, Kopec managed to convince the Twil’ek to fight. They split up into two groups, one of which joined me. The other group went with Kopec to the opposite side of the village, while Zachary was in the middle, all on his own.

By the time the Twi’lek arrived at my location, I had disabled the driver already. Sadly, two other thugs on the steamroller had returned fire and hit my leg real bad. I can take it though, I’m not a whiner like Kopec. Zachary managed to disable the bulldozer driver as well, the vehicle closest to Kopec’s side of the village. With the help of the Twi’lek, it didn’t take long to take down the other two thugs on the steamroller. We did hear some scream from a Twi’lek on the other side of the village.

Zachary decided it was time to take out the loading truck, the middle vehicle occupied by Ang Dromb. He threw a grenade straight into the trailer itself. Ang Dromb was very pissed about this and took out a repeating blaster rifle. He unloaded on the angry mob of Twi’leks near Kopec. I will never forget what I heard next. “GEOFF IS KILLINGBAAAAAH!!” I will miss this guy for sure…

Zachary then came up with this genius idea to push the unload button so Ang Dromb would be thrown out of the back of the vehicle. (I really though I saw him trying to climb into the trailer himself though, so perhaps the unloading wasn’t planned?) Ang Dromb had a pop at Zachary with his repeating blaster before succumbing under the fire of the Twi’leks. I think I saw Ougid'nahuk getting the killing shot. The last two thugs quickly left the scene, while we all grouped around Geoff’s body (except maybe one or two Twi’lek who stood around the other dead body).

Mob of angry Twi'leks flows into the warehouse and beat the remaining 3 thugs into bloody pulp.

Crucifexes are raised

Kopec calms the crowd and explain that a lot more fighting will have to be done over the night. But that those that want to get to safety can do so, escorted by BB.

Zachary scavenges for guns, finding 2 intact pistols and 1 broken.
Zachary and Lainaki get fixed up with the help of Kopec. (medpack)

Plans are discussed again, miners start to party.

Bouraban and Kopec have a falling out, honeymoon's over.
Kopec went there to say that all the Twi'leks agreed to stay and BB is mad about what kopec turned his village into (a blood thirsty mob). Kopec agrues that at least now the village doesn't let other push them around etc. [It's better to die fighting as a free Twi'lek, than to live oppressed] BB argues that there was no killing up untill Kopec showed up.

Chief stops the party, and calls everyone together

Kopec gives a rousing speech. Promises a big party afterwards but explains that the drinking now could cause trouble during the night (~ example of Ougid'nahuk). promises drinking vs Zachery with reward of 30 credits

Zachary explains the plan to the workers, a bit less rousing. But gives a final toast

Lainaki is set on lookout, Zachary prepares the explosives and Kopec directs the workers.

(editor note: The plan shall henceforth be called Triple Destiny, for we manage to roll Destiny on each of our preparations.)

Lainaki spots lights and gets an estimate on how long we have.

4 Thugs "sneak" into the camp

Lainaki is "discovered"

Thugs run after Lainaki, to the centre of the camp. Lainaki is humped by a Thug.

Kopec reveals himself, delivers ultimatim one. He fails

Zachary flips some switches on the Turntable. And Geoff lights up one of the thugs on the cross he is carrying

Explosions to make Michael Bay proud happen, they're as laud and empty of substance as his works.

4 new captives, yeah :D, now to level them by making them fight other trainers :p.

Thugs are stripped by Lainaki, the dirty old foxy lady.

Leks start to party again.

Prisoners are sent to warehouse with a Lek guard (no way this can go wrong)

Zachery, Lainaki and Kopec agree to alternate guard duty so everyone can get some sleep.

But Geoff reminded them that a drinking contest was promised. Zachary is forced into a drinking contest with Geoff, can't hold his liqour, and goes to sleep.

Lainaki then states that they shall split the watch duty (50/50), but changes her mind a bit later stating that Kopec should stay up the entire night; and not wake her at all. Not even after 2/3 of the night.

Kopec tries to wake up Lainaki after 2/3 of the night but she refuses multiple times, stating he should take the entire watch. Kopec finds a 'chamber' pop nearby and walks over to Lainaki and asks her again to wake up. In the end Lainaki does say she will wake up and Kopec leaves the chamber pop in front of her tent.

Lainaki stumbles and kicks over the chamberpot into the sand. She's furious, finds another, runs to kopec's tent and dumps it on him.

Kopec is forced to spend the rest of the night cleaning himself in the improvised ""shower""; and doesn't get any sleep.

//Start Kopec fancfiction
In the morning Kopec riles up the Twi'leks, telling them about how Lainaki offered Ang'Dromb her services in cleaning out New Meen. The angry and (hung over) mob runs to Lainaki's tent and eventually skin and lynch her. Then, Bur'a'ban comes over to apologize for his earlier behaviour and gives Kopec the most amazing blowjob ever. Then Geoff joins in with his drill, mining Kopec's sacred, hidden cave, all night loooooong.
//End Kopec fanfiction

Lek names
R'Thuur = Twi'lek that Kopec talked to in the mines (capable, level headed)
Uus'opguruz = chief of the town, if BB isn't there
Ougid'nahuk = Twi'lek with wooden leg used as example of not do operate heavy machinery when drunk

Zachary - Date unknown, Ryloth

Ya know, I don't usually write these as a diary entries anymore, or extensively curse in writing. BUT, What the fuck happened today/tonight o.O?! You know, this was supposed to be some kind of easy gig, play bodyguard for Nahosa for a bit, get some capital, lay low, stay out of the empire's sight, not get involved into more rebellious activity, have some free time,….

Yeah, like that would happen, ever. And I'm starting to doubt not just my own integrity, rotten away by my occupation as it is, but the integrity of some of my companions as well…

So, yesterday. Or more like yesternight.

It started out relatively calm, at the communal dinner-table. I came up with a plan or two while I was driving Lainaki back to New Meen and was explaining it to Kopec and Lainaki over a bowl of gruel. In the middle of the table, Anna, exhausted from these stressful days, was asleep next to her bowl of food, the Leks giving her a wide berth after what happened before. She had fallen into her soup with a loud thunk, but Lainaki was kind enough to get her out and give her a comfortable blanket. My employer was nowhere to be found, I think I last saw him, still knocked out, in some tent. Or maybe it was the speeder? B'ura B'an was sitting on the other end of the table, together with the village chief. I think he's called Usop Guru or something like that?

Anyways, after explaining that I might have taunted/convinced some of the thugs to pay us a nightly visit, and how we can turn this to our advantage, Kopec wanders over to BB and starts talking to him. Lainaki and I join a bit later, and Kopec seems to be trying to convince BB to let the miners fight. He doesn't seem too keen on the plan. A bit odd, on the way here, Kopec wouldn't stop yabbering on how much of a hero this guy's supposed to be. They agree on the fact that if the miners want to fight, they can fight, and BB will take care of those who don't. We agree on a couple of signals, and I give the outline of the ambush plan again, this time to the chief mainly.

Lainaki, probably bored since this is the third time she's hearing all this (and she claims to have a good memory), wandered off for a bit.

Halfway through hammering out the details, we hear a piercing shriek coming from warehouse/shack were we kept the joyriding bozos. I leapt to my feet and sprinted towards the sound. Behind me, I could hear Kopec addressing the Leks, and soon after, the rumbling of many feet. I stormed inside, saw Lainaki fending four muscleheads with a knife, and without thinking, hammered the closest one. I could feel the impact of the blow reverberating inside my arm, and he fell backwards, blood pouring from his nose. Adrenaline pumping, I took position close to Laiks. A blink and a breath later, the miners swarmed inside. They tore up the thugs, hopped on a cocktail of fear and rage.

Dammit Kopec, I hope you can keep them under control.

The end result was not a pretty sight. At least the crowds bloodlust seemed sated with the thugs, and we were left alone. Kopec joined us, outside, while the Leks, disturbingly, where mutilating the corpses further even starting to crucify them, and starting a party at the same time. Given their mental state, I refrained from acting. luckily, Lainaki managed to convince Kopec to convince the miners to temporarily halt their gruesome activities.

At this point, I started looking for the guns the thugs had, since we have been more or less outgunned up until this point. I found two intact blasters, and a broken one I reckon we can strip for repair parts later. Together with Kopec, we also patch up some of my wounds and do the same to our intrepid academic.

Once again, we outline the plan, and during the discussion, Kopec has a mayor falling out with mr BB. Some harsh words are exchanged, with BB claiming Kopec has turned his idyllic little mining town into the breeding ground of a bunch of murderous human-haters. Can't say I disagree, but there's something to be said for not being pushed around by any two-bit thug with a gun. Unless I'm the one doing the pushing ofc. Kopec's rethoric about freedom is dangerous though, I've heard all this shit somewhere else before >.<, and it didn't turn out well…

Anyways, we finally start on preparations. Kopec gives a rousing speech to the Leks, getting them definitely riled up for the evening. I prepare a masterful display of pyrotechnics, and Lainaki takes up position as the lookout.

A couple of hours into the night, Lainaki spots something approaching, and the plan unfolds:

- 4 Thugs "sneak" into the camp

- Lainaki is "discovered"

- Thugs run after Lainaki, to the center of the camp. Lainaki is humped by a Thug.

- Kopec reveals himself, delivers ultimatum one. He fails

- Zachary flips some switches on the Turntable. And Geoff lights up one of the thugs on the cross he is carrying.

And so we took 4 of Ang Dromb's thugs in captivity, to replace the 4 we lost earlier. This time we take the time to strip (Lainaki, you foxy old lady), before dumping them in the warehouse together with a guard. We agreed to split guard duties over the night, and then the party broke loose, the Leks finally allowed to relax.

And then bloody Geoff stormed at us, holding a barrel of what I presume should be labeled as alcohol (it tasted like Bantha piss). Apparently Kopec had promised a drinking contest, with me as a contestant. Kopec, fuck you and fuck your bloody promises. I don't even drink. much.

Predictably, I loose, and loosen the contents of my stomach swiftly after. That's about all I can remember of the evening. That and the smell of my own puke >.>.

Apparently Kopec and Lainaki had a fight after? Something involving a bucket of piss? You know, I'm not going to judge, everyone has a kink, but seriously, don't wake me up for it.

Kopec - Date unknown, Ryloth

It was around the time that the second blaster shot had hit me in the back that I realized that I should really start thinking several more steps ahead during these altercations. I had never been the type of person to stand in the line of fire and there I was again; unarmed, hands-bound, running away from thugs, directly in the line of fire. Hell, it had hardly been 24 hours since our little run ins with the imperial forces and the strangely able guard droids in Mos Shuuta.

But, I have got to hand it to my comrades, they know how to defend themselves. Especially Zachary, he's one tough bastard. I should remember thanking him for waiting to blow up the cave till I got out and the others for not hitting me during the fire fight. However, I guess this is how it's going to be from now on, and until I find some people to do the fighting for me, I should look into getting my hands on a blaster.

After Zacheri untied me, we patched Ana up as well as we could only to be interrupted by a terrible shrieking noise coming from inside the cave. Nahosa didn't seem phased at all as he calmly continued his beauty sleep (I guess he must have hit his head a bit harder than we thought). While Lainaki assured me that she had come across a Hutt making a very similar noise (and Zacheri expressing his disbelieve behind her back by mimicking what that would look like) , we noticed a speeder in the distance. It appeared to come from the other flank of the bluf and Lainai suggested that we'd go take a look. But because neither I or any of the others was inclined to join her on this trip, she let it go.

In the meanwhile, Anna had been patching up the speeder. I'm 80% sure that she literally did it with one eye shut, whether it was because she was showing off or because she was starting to show early signs of a sun stroke. B'ura B'an decided to keep a close eye on her. As soon as Anna got the speeder running again, Zachery crashed on the backseat beside his employer. I guess the heat must have gotten to him as well. The rest of the trip was rather uneventful besides some weird incident of "who's hand is this?" between our two sleeping beauties and B'ura B'an. Oh, and Anna found some incredibly stylish sunglasses in the glove compartment to compliment her look.

A little while later we arrived at New Meen. B'ura b'an had already told us that his people (well, our people… my people) had been living under duress for the past few months, ever since a new landowner had started buying up all surrounding land. But still, I was quite shocked when I saw the conditions my brothers and sisters lived in. The mining 'town' of New Mean turned out to be not much more than a small collection of tents and improvised shelters; and the few stone constructions were in such a sorry state that they only amplified the rag tag feel of the encampment. Upon our arrival we were greeted by around twenty of my kinsman, what later turned out to be almost entire population of the town. The crowd immediately rejoiced at the return of their leader, but it couldn't hide the overall gloomy atmosphere. After noticing the worried look on B'ura B'ans' face, me and Lainaki decided to join them to discuss the situation. In the meanwhile Ana and Zachary discussed if they could possibly combine the blaster scraps of the blown up thugs from earlier into a functioning weapon.

After a quick conversation with B'ura B'an and the spokesman of the town, the situation turned out to be pretty grim. Ang Drombb, a human businessman, who had bought up all surrounding lands had now set his eyes on New Mean. And after B'ura B'an had repeatedly refused his low ball offers, Ang Dromb had turned to intimidation tactics. Thugs would regularly come to the village to destroy equipment and threaten my fellow Twi'leks with violence. Upon hearing this my stomach turned and my blood began to boil. No one oppresses or threatens my people, and especially not some second class thug in a fancy suit. (who as far as we could suspect is in bed with Teemo, why else would Trex have captured B'ura B'an?)

Lainaki and I consorted with our comrades and after a quick discussion where I pointed out to Ik that the our potential business agreement with New Mean wouldn't entail much if my people couldn't mine in peace, the others agreed to help. Anna didn't seem fully comfortable with the idea of staying there for a while (I hoped it was the sand and sun and not my kind that was bothering her), but even she realized that leaving our 'suppliers' hanging would be bad for business, and that no moneys meant no new toys for her.

The idea of an immediate direct military confrontation with Ang Dromb was put aside in favor of a ploy to get more intelligence about his operation. (B'ura B'an had told my in private that he at all cost wanted to avoid direct involvement of Free Ryloth). Lainaki, Ana and Zachary would travel to Ang Drombs base of operations (which only laid a few milest to the south) in the morning to get a sense of what we were dealing with. Na'hosa and I would stay in New Meen to see what we could do to help out here. As night fell over New Mean, the town held a little celebration for the return of their leader. And for a few hours everyone seemed to forget their dire situation; seeing smiles on the faces of my brothers and sisters reminded my of the resilience of my people. I ended the night bonding with B'ura B'an (who seemed tired after years of struggling for Twi'lek independence) and 'convinced' him again of the fact that it's better to die fighting as a free Twi'lek than to live a life of oppression.

Being among my people again and looking out over the seemingly endless desert had brought back many memories, making it almost impossible to catch some sleep. So I decided I might as well keep watch; catching some thugs in the act could benefit Lainaki in her negotiations in the morning. It was about 2 hours after the others had gone to sleep that I started to hear a rumbling in the distance and after a few moments I spotted what appeared to be a giant crane heading straight for the village.

I sounded the alarm and while me and B'ura B'an tried to get as many people to safety, Lainaki and Zachary devoted their attention to stopping the monstrosity. Zachary fired a couple of warning shots, but the heavily intoxicated driver and crew, who appeared to having the time of their life (bottles in hand), could not care less. Lainaki managed to throw her grappling hook on the vehicle as it passed her , but collision was only moments away. It was at that point that Zachary saved the day (… well night, well, the village) by grabbing a hold of the 'passenger ladder', climbing up, knocking out the driver, and slamming the breaks. The crane only lightly grazed the rag tag warehouse.

The intoxicated crew members did not stand a chance against the wrath of limp. He knocked them out cold and dragged the supposed leader back to his tent. Damn, I knew the guy had a temper, but after seeing him in that state put his everyday behavior in a whole new perspective. However, he did have every right to be furious. These thugs most likely belonged to Ang Drombb's outfit and I didn't think they would have been polite enough to let us leave our tents before running us over like cattle. I asked Geoff (one of the toughest looking bystanders) to tie up the party goers and to make sure they would not wake up comfortably. He and some friends were very happy to oblige and it was at that point that I picked up on the situation that was slowly developing. [Editor note: Twi'leks can communicate emotions/feelings/thoughts via Leku]
Some of my kinsman were wondering why we would grant them the mercy they would not grant us, and I could not hide the fact that I agreed, pretty strongly even. On top of that I saw a unique opportunity to turn a tired, hopeless, beaten down tribe into a bloodthirsty vengeful crowd. They would not need our help, they could help themselves and storm the encampment of their oppressor by night.

Geoff must picked up that I agreed with him and suddenly started shouting: DEATH TO THEHUMANS as he ran off towards the mine entrance. Without me noticing the bystanders had picked up rocks and knifes, while starting to slowly surround not only the prisoners but also Lainaki and Anna. (Limp was asleep in his tent) Anna pulled her two blasters and started shouting how she would take at least seven of them down with her. (you've got love the fire that girl has). I have to admit that I contemplated giving the prisoners to the crowd while trying to convince them that my comrades were not the bad guys. But when Geoff returned with a gigantic powered on drill while alternating between DEATH TO THEHUMANS and DRILLTHEHUMANS. I realized that fueling the blood lust would put my friends in a very dangerous position. I signaled B'ura B'an that I needed his help and he was able to defuse the situation. Anna was only inclined to put her guns away when we told her that she could have the crane. (she ran off immediately).

The rest of the night passed relatively peacefully and in the morning I heard from Zachary that Anna wouldn't be joining them on their trip because she was still passed out. (this later turned out to be because Lainaki had stuffed the 4 unconscious thugs on top of Anna in the crane cockpit, preventing her from catching some sleep). I spent my morning helping out around the mine, which gave me the opportunity to talk to every able bodied Twi'lek in order to convince him or her to take up arms if negotiations would fail. At the very least I was able to convince Geoff.

Zachary and Lainaki returned around midday. As Anna joined us for lunch, they told us what they had learned. Lainaki had met with Ang Drombb who turned out to be nothing more than a thug in a fancy suit, and a particularly foul mouthed one at that. A peaceful solution didn't seem likely anymore. Luckily they did get away with a good notion of the camp layout, firepower and numbers. On top of that Zachary might have tricked some of Ang Drombb's thugs into a trap by telling a story of how he once dealt with reluctant land owners.

As we considered our options around the dinner table, an idea began to form which included the crane, explosives, and taking out the booze supply of Ang Drombb's operation….

Lainaki - Data unknown, Ryloth

So there we were, flying through hyperspace on our way to Ryloth. Not the most efficient route, I know, but this allowed us all to take a well needed nap. Anna and I made ourselves comfortable in the cockpit. She fell asleep first, and seemed to be quite restless. Just like when I was <s>with</s> young, I am always the one to fall asleep last.

What a way to wake up: a barely functional hyperdrive shutting down and rattling every single bone in your body. As if I wasn’t in pain enough already… And on top of that we were welcomed by the sight of a starfighter. We all recognized the make from our time in Mos Shuuta: a kubaz ship. Teemo must have dispatched some thugs after us. I tried hailing the fighter to discover its intentions, and the filth dared to demand us to surrender. I was quick enough to enable the sub light engines and accelerate to full speed, while Anna screamed over the intercom to inform the others to prepare for an attack. While the others were scurrying around the ship, Anna even managed to temporarily get part of the shields back up! This lady really has a talent for mechanics I must admit.

Zachary and Ik fired some warning shots and Kopec joined us in the cockpit. He ripped the hailing apparatus from my hands but clearly underestimated the determination of the kubaz. Does he really think I wouldn’t have tried to reason with him if I, a trained diplomat, would deem it possible? Finally returning to his home planet must really weigh on him.

The kubaz opened fire but was as good a shot as Zachary would prove to be. After a while Ik finally got a hit on the starfighter, a powerful one they informed me later. I hadn’t noticed it since I tried to speed away. After the hit, the kubaz must have had the same idea and his blip slid to the edges of our radar.

Kopec asked us if this was the only threat. Anna, clearly a bit cranky this morning, snarled back: “Of course this was the only starfighter, you think we wouldn’t have told you if there were others?”. I was not as confident though, and decide to run a quick and hasty scan behind her back. Doing this, I overloaded the crappy sensor system of this rust bucket. Now Anna decided I was to be the second victim of her morning fury.

After she calmed down, B'ura B'an hailed his friends in Nabat and we received the coordinates of landing bay zèta. After our landing there was a little scuffle about Anna wanting to stay behind to help B'ura B'an’s mechanics. Kopec rigorously managed to convince her to stay with us and we all followed B'ura B'an into the city. Kopec has never been this strict to the crew, I suspect his return to this planet also means the return of his crave for leadership. I must keep him in check before he takes over my expedition for his own plans.

We passed by a local marketplace. Zachary declared the junk he had found within the Kryat Fang and proposed to sell it all. But when Anna heard about the astromech parts, Ik and I agreed to let her try to repair it. Ik then proposed to sell the insectoid remains he found. Well this was what pushed me over the edge. Anna’s complaining, Kopec taking things into his own hands, and now Ik and Zachary didn’t think to tell me about some alien insectoid remains? Did they forget what my expedition is all about?

After I reminded them all of my leadership and the purpose of our expeditions, we were discussing what we need to buy and what to sell. Suddenly, Kopec admitted he found 1000 credits on board the Kryat. I couldn’t believe my ears. This crew is as dysfunctional as the shields on that thing we call a ship!

At least now we finally had some cash. Zachary demanded some credits to buy himself a replacement gun. Later he came back with a stun gun and a bunch of stims. Anna found someone selling droid parts, a little overpriced nevertheless. I decided to go with her, I figured she could use a shopping companion after the rough morning she had. I helped her get the price down, only 200 credits instead of 225. But afterwards we checked the quality of the parts a little closer, and really these parts are barely worth 100 credits.

When we returned we discovered that after Ik could not find airtight container for those horrible skins, he decided to look for a tanner to finish the job. The poor man was horrified by Ik’s proposal. Who walks into a local tanner’s job asking to process the illegal skins from semi-intelligent beings? I really start to wonder if it was a smart choice to choose Ik as my investor.

After our shopping spree, B'ura B'an led us to a safe house of his people, whoever they are. There were some Twi’lek and human soldiers inside and B'ura B'an introduced us to Nyn Kablo. She thanks us for rescuing B'ura B'an, and offers us a business opportunity. If we help them with their local issues, they would help us take down Teemo. The only thing we need to do is escort B'ura B'an to New Meen. B'ura B'an’s presence in New Meen would help them resist the pressure of the thugs, who are probably serving Teemo, and keep the mine in Twi’lek control. They would provide us with a speeder to cross the desert. After a quick discussion we agreed to help them. Ik then asked if they could provide us with airtight containers and lo and behold, he finally got the bloody containers. Well, he will have them, when we return.

We received some medical attention in the safe house and all went to sleep. In the morning we would need all our strength to leave on our trip through the desert.

(author’s note: unbeknownst to Lainaki and any other members of the crew, Zachary snuck off in the middle of the night to dump the Wookie pelts into the first dumpster he found)

I had a good’s night rest this time, and it did not seem like Anna was the one who had the worst night this time. Zachary looked fatigued, I wonder what’s on his mind… After we thanked Nyn for the medical help, some militants led us through a service tunnel to the speeder. Zachary took the wheel, and off we went!

We hit some pretty rough terrain, and cliffs were rising around us. Suddenly we heard a loud bang and the speeder spun out like crazy. At least Zachary was able to minimize the spinning, but Ik was catapulted out of the speeder, landed face first in the sand quite a distance away and slid a few metres further. I hope he likes the taste of sand…

Zachary called out a cave in the bluff, with three humans, a gand and a trandoshan standing armed with blaster rifles. Zachary tells us the trandoshan is Trex. One of the humans orders us to halt and come out with our hands up, and he tries to (poorly) convince us he’s an imperial official. Kopec tells me to act like I am seriously hurt while he walks out into the open. I agree, I always liked a bit of acting. Kopec tries to negotiate with them, and when he gets close, one of the other humans cuffs him. This is when Zachary and I decided we’ve had enough and open fire. The firefight was quite dull, but I got a good hit on that ‘imperial’ guy. Oh and Anna got knocked out by a stunt weapon, she is going to be pissed when she wakes up.

Once Zachary had killed one of the humans with a grenade, they all started retreating into the cave, and as soon as Kopec escaped from the cave, we all helped Zachary in blowing up the entrance. Zachary hurt himself, but at least we were safe again. For now…

Ik - Data unknown, aboard the Krayt Fang

'Hyperspace. Finally…' Ik sighed deeply, closed his eyes and let his face rest against the cold turret control panel. 'What a day' His thoughts wandered back to the cozy safety of the container on Tatooine. Why didn't he stay there for the night? The only minus he could think of was the overwelming penetrating smell that came back to his memory. He lifted his head suddenly. 'Wait a minute, that container didn't smell at all.'

Suddenly, his entire body was smashed against the panel while hearing a frightened yell from Lainaki, some unintelligible Twi'lek curses and the deafening sound of metal on metal from the insides of the ship. 'Why did they stop?' A moment later, the alarms of the ship tooted and screeming of tortured pigs blasted through the speakers.

Ik climbed out of the turret. Limp and Kopec rushed by, attempting to cover both their nose and ears with their hands. It was the sickening smell of dead meat. Bah. Even worse than that time they ate Limp his favourite spicy dish while the ship toilets were broken. From the control room he heard the voice of Anna, slightly annoyed: "Somebody knows Transdoshan?". He knew where to go.

By the time Ik arrived in the control room, Anna had managed to turn off the alarm and switch the computer language to Basic. The team intercom turned on, it was Zachary. "We located the source of this smell. There is a hidden room underneath the main cargo with six raw Wookie skins. Kopec is overwhelmed, we're leaving this room. Please stop the pig screams." . A delighted expression appeared on the tired face of Ik. Wookie skins are highly valuable.

Anna responded "Thow those disgusting things out of the airlock". The delighted expression vanished instantly. "Those skins stay aboard. Turn off the main cargo ventilation, that smell will blow away by itself" Anna hectically started typing, warning sign windows popped up on the monitor, only to disappear immediately. "This will fix it", she stated. Loud slams resounded across the ship and with a soft click the breeze of rotting air disappeared. The intercom light flickered. Zachary: "Did you just lock all doors and turn off the ventilation system?"

It took one more hour of frustration get the ventilation going in all rooms but the main cargo and to silence the pig screaming that still blasted through the ship intercom. Anna was relieved: "Finally, stupid Gamorrean opera". Limps voice returned over the intercom. "While you guys were busy playing with the computer and flipping on and off our oxygen supplies, Kopec and I finished searching this ship. We found an extra passenger, a Twi'lek calling himself B'ura B'an, locked away in the cell block. Kopec claimed he's some sort of hero and promptly released him."
Ik frowned. 'A complete stranger released on the ship without consulting me or anyone else. I have to keep a close eye on Kopec' Ik responded: "Let's meet with our hero within an hour"

An hour later the crew was gathered, a team of five, exhausted and smelly with a freshly cleaned stranger in the middle. The scent of Na'Hosa and Kopec was remarkably bad, both of them smelling as bad as the Wookie pelts. There had been an argument with the other team members, who argued to throw the pelts in outer space. Ik and Kopec had teamed up to move the pelts from the central cargo to the secluded cells in the back of the ship, only to find out that disabling the cell ventilation was too hard, even for Anna. The overall state of the ship was awful. On the inside of the vessel, there was the overwhelming smell of dead meat and since the doors still didn't function, Zachary had screwed off and hacked every single door control panel. Anna had found out through the system that there was a tracker on the outside of the ship, broadcasting their location every few minutes to Tatooine. On top of that, they would run out of fuel very soon and they could only tank at Riloth, a planet far too close to Tatooine, far too close to Teemo.

Ik sat at the head of the table with an expectant smile, waiting for the guest to thank his rescuers and introduce himself. When B'ura B'an spoke however, it was a comment on the professionality of the team. Lainaki reacted, Zachary gave some comments and some minutes later the crew was involved in a lively discussion. Na'hosa remained silent, attentively looking at this stranger. By the time B'ure B'an started to provide his opinion on the attractiveness of the female crew members, he decided to interrupt.

"I am the leader of this crew. Rather than giving comments on your rescue, can you provide us with some info on yourself? Who are you? Why does he [Kopec] considers you to be a hero? Why were you captured?" B'ura B'an mocked: "I see this leader has his crew firmly under control" and went back to assessing the physical qualities of Anna. What a major dick.
Unsettled, Ik stuttered: "Are you going to cooperate or do we have to put you back into your cell?"
Nobody listened. Asshole.

Ik remebered his father speaking to the Trandoshan trader commitee. Tens of Trandoshans and non-Trandoshans silently listening to one fragile Bothan. Afterwards, his father bend down over him and whispered: "Remember, a great leader never has to anounce himself as such, it becomes clear by his other actions. Take an example at how your sister can get people to listen to her."

By the time that Ik's thoughts returned to the conversation, Kopec seemed to be asking his questions to B'ura B'an. It turned out that B'ura B'an had 'liberated' some mines from a foreign species that oppressed the Twi'leks, eventually becoming a prominent figure in the mining industry himself. Since Ryll mining was illegal, he had to cooperate with the Hutts to distribute his products. However, recently, the Hutts had started their own mining operations and Teemo had sent Trex to capture him.

After the meeting, Ik sat down on a bed in the crew room. He reached for a pencil and started writing:
'INVENTORY

Regrets? A few

Phew, that was close. Way too close. I’m amazed this rustbucket held up under the stress, she must be tougher than I gave her credit for. Also, note to self, next time I’m high on adrenaline from some good bangs and Boss-lady let’s me call the shots, maybe not call the shots immediately, right there, literally. Or maybe just bring more explosives and a spare gun next time. Yeah, should probably do that. One of the two. Maybe both. And maybe get some guns for the rest of the guys, and some battle-droids, definitely some battle-droids, oh, and some walkers, those are nice too, especially the big ones that menace with blasters of ion. Where was I? Oh, right, to-do list.[<ul><li> Repair blaster pistol</li><li> Claim galley as personal workshop</li><ul> <li>If galley does not exists, claim a cargo-hold and set up cooking station</li></ul><li> Find a place to cook the food.</li><li> Cook some actual food</li><li> Get Ik to pay me</li><li> Refill personal medical supplies</li></ul>]

I should probably get Anna to help me to some of these. And apologize I guess, I didn’t get her back our old bird after all. And apologize to the rest, I guess. Well, maybe except for Twin-tails and Boss-lady, those two should know better than to present themselves so eagerly to some damn droids. And Ik still owes me money, even more since I broke my bloody gun defending him. So, apologies for the gear monkey it is. Maybe I could make her some extra nice food…

Anna's Diary - don't read don't touch don't anything

Oh my god, I didn't sign up for this shit. I mean, I did, but that's not the point. Everything hurts. It feels like someone hit me with a sledgehammer right against the left half of my rib cage. A sledgehammer that was on fire or something, fuck. Note to self, don't get freaking shot. There's still some sand stuck in my mouth too and it just sends the worst kind of shivers down my spine whenever I feel the grains grinding between my teeth.

I completely blame Limp for this, you know. You don't just go shooting stuff out of nowhere. Bad plan. At least inform your crew first that you're gonna pull a kamikaze stunt before dragging them into it or something. Fuck I'll write the eulogy to your burial and read it with tears streaming down my face and tell the world how big of a suicidal hero you were – just don't get us all fucking shot. I'm gonna kick his ass as soon as I get the chance and as soon as I can properly move.

I also miss my baby, my beautiful, shiny, chrome ship baby. She was so beautiful. I just installed new shield modifiers too. Oh no my work bench. My beautiful work bench. I miss my work bench too.

Now we're aboard some rusty, old light freighter. It's not her fault that she's rusty, she was clearly neglected. Her name is Krayt Fang. Mother always used to say that when a pet dies, you immediately need to adopt a new one to lessen the hurt. Mother never was the best with coping mechanisms, but I think I understand now.

Having my ship baby taken away from me really left me with a feeling of emptiness, loss. It really was my baby, there wasn't a square inch that I didn't do some tinkering on at some point. But adopting (cough stealing cough) this old granny, it lessens the blow. She got quite hurt during our daring escape, but she hung in there. She didn't blow up on us, the energy shields moved like they had too.

There is some real fire and potential in our Granny Fang and I can't wait to restore her back to her former glory. And give her a wicked spray paint job. Gonna ask Na'hosa to set some funds aside in the future for it.

I mean, if we ever get paid again, for anything. Being on the run suuuuuucks.

Anna - Date unknown, aboard the Krayt Fang

So there I was, wandering a bit around the local market, blending in and all, listening in on the rumors, when I suddenly hear and see this explosion in the distance. I just knew my fellow crew mates were responsible for it – and even if they weren't, a little disaster tourism is always fun. On my way towards the commotion, I noticed these smoking bits of… is that a stormtrooper foot? I looked up to see my friends, a slight hint of panic in their looks and my face must've just been a big question mark. Before I could properly ask what's going on, they grab me, tell me the situation has escalated ever so slightly, but that we have a hyper matter reactor ignitor (HMRI) and that Limp spotted a nearby hangar with a light freighter inside. Time to get off this planet.

We easily made our way to the hangar, but there is where things went horribly wrong. The gate was open so we could see the rusty, poor excuse for a freighter standing inside. I just wanted our old ship back, but people-on-the-runners can't be choosers, I guess. Two droids stood in front of the hangar. They looked old, rusty, worn down. I overheard Lainaki and Limp exchanging a few words and before anyone could properly assess the situation, Limp fired a shot at one of the droids. In hindsight, it must've been the adrenaline from the previous altercation that drove him to such a dangerous, impulsive decision – but it nearly fucked us all over.

Chaos erupted as some of us managed to dive behind crates for cover, but Kopec and Ik went down almost immediately. Lainaki could somehow drag Kopec into safety as Limp and I fired shots at the droids. Two more droids soon appeared from inside the hangar. We managed to take the two outside out, but the two others kept hitting us with deadly accuracy. We were so fucked, so I made a split-second decision to run towards the gate panel in an attempt to close the gate. Got hit on my way towards it and as if things weren't bad enough yet, Lainaki went down as well and Limp's gun got blown to bits.

I'm going to be honest, panic set in really badly at that point. I kept slamming the controls on the panel, but I couldn't figure the code out. Maybe it was the pain, or the stress, but all I managed to do was close the gate like, 25% of the way – which barely helped. Limp kept shouting helpful tips at me through the voice comms so I kept trying. Last thing I remember is the sound of a blaster shot and then the sudden sensation of sand in my mouth as I went down.

Kopec and Limp filled us in later of what had happened while we were all KO. Limp managed to flee the scene and dragged Kopec along with him. He quickly patched him up and got him back on his feet, so they could head back to save Lainaki, Ik and me. Of course, by the time they were back, we were gone. They scouted around the hangar and found a maintenance entrance – couldn't open it. Above it was an air duct, juuuust big enough to crawl through. I'm sad that I had to miss the sight of Kopec worming himself through it.

The airduct led to the control room of the hangar, from where they could see the entire hangar. The two droids were standing at the gate, so they had to find a way to distract them. They used the overhead speakers to shout something along the lines of "Trex wants you to get some crates from outside" and somehow that worked. Horrible programming, really. The duo ran the the light freighter, named Krayt Fang and jumped on board.

Apparently, Lainaki, Ik and me were dumped quite unceremoniously in the main hallway. Could've been a garbage chute, we got lucky. Zachary jumped straight into the pilot seat to send the ship in a course off planet. Things went fast then, alarms started blaring as the freighter took off and as soon as it left the hangar, four TIE fighters were on our heels to take us down. Zachary ran back to help Kopec get the three sleeping beauties back to the land of the living.

Limp had to use a stimpack on me to get me to wake up and I was really confused at first. There is something disorientating about waking up with a panicked guy standing over you, shouting at you to fix the HMRI and we're fleeing and we're being chased and here take this fix it fix it now do it nooow. Luckily, the mechanics part of my brain kicked straight into gear, I grabbed the hypermatter drive and headed towards the engine room. I managed to install it quite easily, but it would take some time before we could jump – before we could get away from the TIE fighters.

Lainaki was doing the piloting, Ik and Zachary the shooting, I was running between doing repairs and shooting off spoof missiles to confuse the TIE fighters' hit scans and Kopec… Well, Kopec did some motivational speaking. It was rough. The ship suffered some severe damage as the TIE fighters managed to land some serious hits. At one point one of them even collided into us, I thought we were a goner. We managed to take three of the TIE fighters down between all our evasive maneuvers, it seemed like forever, but then it was finally time to jump.

Anna's intro campaign

I don’t know if this is how you’re supposed to start these things, but if I don’t talk to someone… to something – I feel like I’m going to explode. Tomorrow is the first day of medical school. I’m quite sure my parents already wrote the date down on the day I was freaking born. Apptacys are doctors. Always have been, always will be.

Tomorrow I’m going to take my chance. If he says no, well, then it wasn’t meant to be. Then it just means that I can’t change my destiny.

D-day

He said yes. I can’t believe it. He actually said yes. Ezradun Sharvan is going to be my mentor, already is my mentor. I’m going to become a mechanic. His workshop is small, there are thingamajings all over the place – grease too- and I love it. There’s warmth, unlike the sterile, dead environment of a doctor’s office or a clinic.

I nearly got caught by mother though. Didn’t really get the chance to clean my hands and my coat had some smudges on it too, but I managed to get past her. Sent my adrenaline levels through the roof though. Will need to be more careful in the future.

First exams

Exams are coming up soon. I should really start studying for them. I’ve attended not a single class this semester, but I have all the books and data I might need. Maybe I should ask Ezradun if I can only come in the mornings for the next few weeks, so I can start cramming. The longer I can pretend that everything is going okay at medical school, the longer I can continue learning from Ezradun in peace.

-

Okay I still can’t believe it. I can’t believe it! He gave me an old – really old – swoop bike. My official, long-term project: fixing it! I’m so proud at how far I’ve already come. Choosing Ezradun as a mentor was the best decision of my life and I owe him so much. I’ll have to pay for all the parts and tools to fix it myself though. I mean, I’d expect and want nothing else, but I’ll definitely have to start planning ahead budget-wise.

-

Had another tricky moment today. Father asked me how the classes were going. I don’t know how, but I managed to talk myself out of that conversation by diverting the attention to mother’s cooking skills. I don’t think he’s onto me, but I’ll have to be more careful.

Second semester

Managed to make my score sheet disappear. 6 exam results that say “no show” would be too difficult to find an excuse for.

-

The swoop bike is beginning to look more like a bike again and less like a rusty skeleton. Running out of money though, will have to start asking mother for more. I’m sure students need their own microscopes or some other expensive things. Surely.

-

I’ve been an idiot. I’ve become too careless and nonchalant. Mother asked why my clothes are always so dirty and greasy. Father nearly called the university to file a complaint about the lack of cleanliness of the class rooms. Managed to steer the conversation away again, praise mother’s passion for household chores. I don’t think I’ll be able to dodge another bullet like this. My excuses are becoming more flaky by the day.

I think I died today. My heart definitely stopped beating. While I was working on the bike, -thank the stars that I was lying underneath it father walked into the workshop. His air speeder is making too much noise apparently and Ezradun needs to fix it. Of course he noticed “the new apprentice” and wanted to meet me, the strange, inappropriate girl that shows interest in mechanics. Ezradun, proud and gentle man that he is, immediately defended me and tried to introduce me. I tried to distort my voice a bit and made up a lousy excuse of why I couldn’t come out from underneath the bike. Father fell for it. He’s an incredibly intelligent man, the only reason why my ridiculous attempt worked is because in no possible universe would father ever suspect that his daughter would be a mechanic. Never ever.

I feel the walls guarding my secret life crumbling and I am beyond scared. I am going to lose everything, it’s just a matter of time. I should start preparing for the day that it all blows up in my face

I told Ezradun everything. He was so understanding. He comforted me. I bawled my eyes out. I’d give up everything in the universe to switch my father for him.

-

I thought we were fine, but I feel that there is a certain tension between Ezradun and me since I told him everything. He’s more reserved and distant. I hope it goes away.

End of the second semester

The swoop bike is looking amazing! I can’t believe how much progress I’ve made over the past ten months. I just need a few more parts – like the breaks – before it’s completely done. I’ve ordered a flashy purple paint, but the delivery is taking longer than expected. I need to find a way to thank Ezradun for this past year and show him how much this all means to me. Maybe I’ll build him something useful for in the workshop.

The aftermath

I don’t know where to start. Everything is over. Father found out. He went through my stuff while I was away. He gave me an ultimatum. I left. I stayed at Ezradun’s. Father threatened him. I fucked it all up. My life is over and my dearest friend in the world will pay for it. I can’t deal with this

-

I’m so tired. I’m sitting in the port, waiting for a ship that needs a mechanic. I’m going away, off-planet, so my father will no longer have to threaten Ezradun. He has cut me off from everything I ever had. Apptacys are doctors. And if they’re not, they better disappear.

I’m going to prove him wrong, I’m going to prove them all wrong. The entire universe will know the name Apptacy as the name of an amazing mechanic. I’m going to make Ezradun proud.

Zachary - 0XE46CTC

Phew, that was a close one. Fusion accelerator had sprung a leak while in hyperspace, had to tell the pilot to do an emergency pull-out, which of course caused to hyperspan modulator to break down due to the increased stress. I've had reverse the polarity on the Fluxing filter, and rejigged the tachyon-emitter tobounce the graviton particle-beam across the main
deflector dish, so the excess gamma radiation doesn't cook us inside this damn rustbucket of a ship.

I sure hope this gets us to the next port in one piece, but we certainly need an actual mechanic for this kind of Bantha drek, I'm running out of ideas and duct-tape over here…

Kopec - Date unknown, Mos Shuuta spaceport

As I had feared Teemo caught up to us when we were refueling our ship and promptly kicked us off. Since he clearly wasn’t done with us yet (and we were pretty keen on keeping all our limbs where they are), we decided to make a run for it. Well, almost everyone decided that that was the preferred course of action. While we were running I heard Ana shout something about “double backing to make sure her ‘baby’ is safe” … I really hope she got away.

Honestly, I thought we had lost Teemo’s goons when we decided get a quick drink in a local cantina to discuss what to do next. However, I guess the group chasing us was hungry for some approval because not two minutes later a 4 or 5 Gomorrians stormed in. Luckily, the others were quick to pop off some headshots. Not a second too early though, because for some reason all of these nut jobs stormed right at me and one of them nearly took my ankle off. Fortunately, the bartender turned out to be a reasonable man – even though Zachary suddenly lost all ability to understand sarcasm -, we just had to get rid of the bodies and he even suggested to us a way out of town. (Which was rather strange, seeing we just shot up his bar)

Apparently, a ship called Krayt Fang owned by Trex (a Transdoshan business associate of our dear friend Teemo) was docked there in Mos Shuuta for maintenance. It was quickly decided that making a play for that ship would have more chance of success than trying to retrieve our own. (we decided not to tell Ana before getting her on the ship) It had been docked for maintenance because it required a replacement part for its fancy ignitor. Starting the ship without the ignitor would prove difficult so we made our way to the local scrap dealer.

After we got to the dealer Ik and Zachery took it upon themselves to convince him to part from it. Which suited Lainaki and I, because we got to continue our game of Hollo chess in the meanwhile and she had some time to take a look at my ankle. To our combined surprise, the two actually came back with the part (both relatively unscathed, but judging from Ik’s facial expression when Zachary mentioned his wage, I guess Ik was some credits lighter)

After retrieving the ignitor one of the guys recalled that the clamps of the ship were most likely remotely controlled from the spaceport control tower and that we still needed to locate where the ship was docked exactly. [We really didn't want a repeat of the Dantooine incident]. After scouting out the accesses to the flight control tower, Zachery was able to shed some light on the where is the ship situation after climbing to the top of a local water tower.

A bit later Ik, Lainaki and I fumbled our way to convincing the local Overseer of the space port control to release the clamps to the kraytfang. That way we could get out of there from the moment we located Ana (leaving Teemo without new toys.). But to accompany this good news, we also noticed from the main control that the local division of the Empire had decided that it was a good day to work on their tan.

And because bad luck favours company , a squad of Stormtroopers also needed some exercise that day and decided to chase us from the moment they spotted us leave the space control tower. And boy do these guys carry some heavy weaponry. I caught one in the back and Ik & Lainaki were not a lot better off than me… The only one smiling at that point was Zachary. He was only concerned with whether the explosion could have been bigger. Oh right, explosion. Basically, Zachary saved our collective asses back then by turning the clones (…. were they still clones these days?) who were shooting at us into empire flavored broth. Surely, the empire was most pleased to know there were still more people in need of a bounty on their head… On the plus side Anna could have recognized the Zachary signature and to help find her way back to us. Cause at that point I sort of had it with that place.

Black binder entry – Woman with the stage name Star was dancing on stage in the cantina. She did not speak the native tongue but clearly wasn’t there by her own choice.

Lainaki - 26 BBY_19 BBY

As a sophomore at the legislature, I was honoured to be allowed to speak at during the debate around the main topic of this apprentice senate. I got some weird looks though. My ideas about the use of Jedis in diplomatic positions were apparently quite controversial, although the vote agreed with me: Jedi's should not be diplomats, we should! Apprentice senator Tuurguy Niondam seemed to appreciate my speech. But I do hope next year I will do better!

The Annual Apprentice Senate 10:8:35 (25 BBY, 8th month, 35th day)

Another year, another chance to rectify my mistakes of last year. People weren't as pissed off at what I said about the main topic than they were last year. The tax on trade was supported by a majority, no surprise there.
On a more interesting note, there is this girl, Daminas Tenebris, I think she likes me. I kinda like her, but something's off about her. Keeping quiet for now.

The Annual Apprentice Senate 11:8:35 (24 BBY, 8th month, 35th day, for prologue story reasons: year of the battle of Naboo)

People seemed to enjoy my proposal to send Jedi's to Naboo to report on the conditions. If the trade federation has nothing to hide this should not be a problem right? Tuurguy Niondam did not seem to agree and tried to interrupt my speech, but I think I handled it well. There was no real vote on the topic this time, too much to debate.
Daminas seems to be healthier than last year, and I'm starting to grow fond of her.

The Annual Apprentice Senate 12:9:1 (23 BBY, 9th month, 1st day)

Sanctions for the CIS, I voted yes, majority voted yes. Now that the essentials are out of the way, let's talk about why this journal entry is a day late: Daminas. I finally managed to gather my courage and knock on her door with a bottle of cheap wine. To be honest, I don't know what happened last night, but according to my lack of clothes and gain of a headache in the morning, I have a pretty good idea ;)

The Annual Apprentice Senate 13:8:35 (22 BBY, 8th month, 35th day)

Daminas, me, Tuurguy Niondam, Gaerial Donos and Vabrys Lan were the main, senior apprentice, speakers this year. The moment I finished my speech, turmoil unleashed itself in the senate. I ran to Daminas but she convinced me the vote had to be taken. So I once again took the word and was able to calm the senate down. Thank god the vote agreed on the republican army, let's hope the real senate agrees. The weaker planets really need our help against the aggression of the CIS!
Something else: Daminas has offered to help me find a job on Coruscant!! If she succeeds, we could live together!

The betrayal 16:5:23 (19 BBY, 5th month, 23rd day, canon)

I have no words for this… Chancellor Palpatine… I hope it's not as bad as I think he is, but for now, it seems to be even worse… Daminas reported me for treason since I didn't vote yes on the reformation of the republic. To vote no on the topic and disappoint Daminas was the hardest thing I ever had to do, but it was necessary, although futile in the end… Now I'm wanted by this "empire", and I will need to flee.

Zachary - 0XE46CTC

Found new employer, Bothan calling himself Ik. Claims he's from some kind of influental family. Paycheck's fat though, and he does seem to be throwing throwing creds around. [Reminder: Make sure my payment arrives on time]. Didn't have to do anything more than standing around and look menacingly up until now, and the little playing around with a defused fraggers does pull that off nicely. Still, something itches about this. Thankfully, a ship has been secured, and apparently, we're bankrolling some failed old republic academic on some kind of discovery field trip. Should keep us out of trouble. Now, off to prepare those Dune Rats I shot earlier. This one recipe with Blue Milk is supposed to make them really tender [Retr(RecC, WBM)].

Zachary - 0xE46ATC

Last mission went quite well, not too much complications and I had the opportunity to test out some new mixtures (#B56 was quite flaccid, #B57 was satisfying to hear but less powerful than I'd hoped). [Reminder(0×4,silent): get more synthskin, I'm nearly out]. Spent some time talking to Tren Ven'neta, Nice enough chap, very chat, a bit daft though. Wants to convince me a bunch of backwater bumpkins managed to deal a significant blow to the Empire near some kind of gas giant. Hah, he'll have to come up with a better story next time. Still, nice enough chap, we even exchanged some recipes[Store(RecC): BRS-HE4-T5/S + BM1L-HE5-T10]. His bounty was quite good too, we'll probably be able to get the crew to rest for a week with this. Well, unless cap'n finds us another mission, as he always seems to do >.>